Climate Letter #1072

The unusual role that peatlands play in climate mitigation.  This article from DW provides a fine introduction.  We have to stop draining peatlands for the same reason that we need to stop burning fossil fuels, and doing so would not be any kind of problem for economic activity, would have no cost or require any new technology.  Just leave these lands alone and enjoy their natural benefits.  The trouble is that when converted to modern agriculture the lands becomes more commercially valuable for exploitation by large corporate entities, putting them constantly under threats that have to be countered one by one.  This problem, as noted, is one where neglect is not an option.

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A report on the deforestation losses of 2015-16.  These losses, which include the final clearing of peatlands once they have been drained and dried, account for 10-15% of all human-sourced emissions.  (This amounts to an addition of about 5 billion tons of CO2 per year to the current 36 billion tons from just fossil fuel burning.)  Beyond that,  deforestation also reduces the future ability of these lands to serve as a sink that would otherwise be absorbing CO2 through natural processes.  Every different country has its own way of dealing with this problem—or not, as is often the case.  Don’t miss the picture of a deforested landscape in Madagascar near the end of this story.
–There are places where people are doing the right thing, and could do much more with any kind of outside help:
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A new study about “wet bulb” temperatures pinpoints the locations likely to be most vulnerable later in the current century.  “The study projects that by the 2070s or 2080s the mark could be reached one or two days a year in the U.S. southeast, and three to five days in parts of South America, Africa, India and China. Worldwide, hundreds of millions of people would suffer.”  The only real remedy, air conditioning, is not always available for some.
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Europe is likely to be the destination of choice for many millions of climate refugees.  That is one conclusion of researchers who work on forecasts of how and when future refugee waves will be driven.  Data currently being generated enables such studies to be made with growing confidence of being right.
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The inside story of the campaign to promote misinformation about climate change (Inside Climate News).  “The basic parameters of the long-term threat posed by climate change were well described and known by 1979—referring to a major report on climate change issued by the National Academy of Sciences—but here we are, coming up on nearly 40 years, and there still is confusion and a lack of willingness to act. So I guess in that sense, the effort to stop climate action has won, as if this is a winning position in any sense of the term.”  Ironically, the industrialists that started it have lost control to interests of a different type, largely political.
Carl

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