For the first time in 50 years, Yesterday it snowed in the Sahara Desert
tag > ClimateChange
-
“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth.” ― Herman Hesse
-
Master of weather? China in drive to advance rain-making tech (SCMP)
China’s expanded weather modification efforts would support emergency response plans to deal with events such as drought and hailstorms. Its artificial rainfall and snowfall operations will cover an area of more than 5.5 million sq km – greater than the total size of Southeast Asia.
-
This is half the number of trucks that cross the France/UK channel on a normal day
"This is half the number of trucks that cross the channel on a normal day. One port. All that weight. The energy used to move them. The nature depleted to produce their contents. The debt. Yes, and the livelihoods that depend on them. Behold: the 'before' shot of sustainability."
Image source: Supermarkets airlifting fruit and vegetables to UK amid shortage fears
-
Poster of "discourses of climate delay"
#Comment: for once the total lack of diversity in the poster makes sense...
-
World’s biggest iceberg heads for disaster
The mass is now moving straight toward a remote south Atlantic island populated by penguins and seals. Scientists say a collision could cause a local, environmental catastrophe.
-
China Expanding Weather-Control Program To Make Artificial Rain, Snow (businessinsider)
The practice of "cloud seeding" was discovered in the US in 1946 by a chemist working for General Electric. China launched its own similar program in the 1960s. Dozens of other countries -- including the US -- also have such programs, but Beijing has the world's largest, employing around 35,000 people, The Guardian reported. In a statement, China's State Council said that the country's cloud seeing project will expand fivefold to cover an area of 2.1 million square miles and be completed by 2025. (China encompasses 3.7 million square miles, meaning the project could cover 56% of the country's surface area.) The project will be at a "worldwide advanced level" by 2035, the State Council said, and will help alleviate "disasters such as drought and hail" and facilitate emergency responses "to forest or grassland fires."
-
World is ‘doubling down’ on fossil fuels despite climate crisis – UN report (Guardian)
G20 governments have committed more than $230bn in Covid-19-related funding to fossil fuel production and consumption to date, far more than the $150bn to clean energy
Global soils underpin life but future looks ‘bleak’, warns UN report (Guardian)
It takes thousands of years for soils to form, meaning protection is needed urgently, say scientists
-
Tesla CEO says electric cars will double global electricity demand
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday that electricity consumption will double if the world’s car fleets are electrified, increasing the need to expand nuclear, solar, geothermal and wind energy generating sources. Increasing the availability of sustainable energy is a major challenge as cars move from combustion engines to battery-driven electric motors, a shift which will take two decades, Musk said in a talk hosted by publisher Axel Springer.
-
Germany energy regulator to close 4,788MW of coal plants
Germany’s energy regulator says as much as 4,788MW of coal-fired power generation capacity will cease to be marketable from January 1, as part of a policy to take carbon-polluting capacity out of the market, according to a Reuters report.
The move reflects Germany’s commitment to ending the fossil fuel age, idling the equivalent of five nuclear power plants in one step, while also cushioning the impact on utilities, regions and employment.
-
International lawyers draft plan to criminalise ecosystem destruction (The Guardian)
Plan to draw up legal definition of ‘ecocide’ attracts support from European countries and small island nations.
Mariana Mazzucato: We may need climate lockdowns to halt climate change
We are approaching a tipping point on climate change, when protecting the future of civilization will require dramatic interventions
#Comment: While such ideas might sounds appealing and progressive on first sight, on deeper reflection they are rather crazy and twisted: It is a play-book for eco-fascism. Large scale cooperation is obviously the key to solving the climate and biodiversity crisis - its been the driving force of humanity since the beginning. Yet even more centralisation of power is in my opinion not necessary nor helpful to foster more cooperation - on the contrary, it is what got us into these crisis in the first place. On closer introspection, massive power centralisation is precisely the defining characteristic of these"global climate regime" proposals made exclusively by WEIRD People ("Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich & Democratic"). Plus, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes and who gets to decide what is "ecologically sound"? Lawyers, economists, politicians, bankers and military leaders (the likely arbiters of this regime) certainly strike me as far from ideal.
#Regenerative #Economics #Military #ClimateChange #Cryptocracy
-
AI in the Wild - Sustainability in the Age of Artificial Intelligence - by Peter Dauvergne
Illustration by Christophe Vorlet This book analyzes the complex relationship between AI and sustainability. Using analytical tools from environmental politics, it describes the potential for AI to restore balance to earth systems — like its use in wildlife monitoring and improving efficiency of the electricity grid — but also emphasizes its capacity to reinforce economic and political structures, like resource extraction and suppression of activists, that have resulted in modern environmental crisis.
Machine learning for geographically differentiated climate change mitigation in urban areas - Nikola Milojevic Dupon & Felix Creutzig
Traditionally, mitigation policies have been guided by coarse-scale scenario analysis. However, more and more data are available that can be used to characterize the carbon emissions of cities, from building footprints to mobility patterns. More than simply guiding efficiency improvements, the authors advocate that these data inform decarbonization via urban planning and policy recommendations, through a meta-algorithm they call Machine Learning for low-carbon Urban Planning.
Advancing AI for Earth Science: A Data Systems Perspective - by Manil Maskey, Hamed Alemohammad, Kevin J. Murphy, and Rahul Ramachandran
Tackling data challenges and incorporating physics into machine learning models will help unlock the potential of artificial intelligence to answer Earth science questions.
Continuing the conversation - Climate Change, Machine Learning, and the Power Grid
-
McDonnald's - illustration by Nicolás Ortega
-
Bitcoin mining and green energy
bitcoin’s BIG PROBLEM is that it uses a country’s worth of electricity to run the most inefficient payment network in human history. people don’t seem to know this! and i tell them, and they get angry. because a bunch of nerds killing each other for e-pennies is one thing, but that much CO2 is quite another. you could say “it’s their money, they can spend it how they like”, and that’s how things work, sure. but it’s still a massive externality, and this is a big problem.
-
Shocking temperatures across the Arctic
The hottest October ever in Europe is now followed by a November weekend with an average of 6,7°C above normal across the Arctic. September was also the warmest in Russia’s 130-year recorded history of measuring temperatures in its Arctic regions.
