Climate Letter #1342

Posted on January 17, 2019 by Carl Campbell
A landmark study, published in The Lancet, calls for radical changes in human diet.  Current practices are shown to have catastrophic consequences of many kinds for both the planet and human populations.  “Currently, nearly a billion people are hungry and another two billion are eating too much of the wrong foods, causing epidemics of obesity, heart disease and diabetes…..At the same time the global food system is the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the biggest driver of biodiversity loss, and the main cause of deadly algae blooms along coasts and inland waterways…..Agriculture—which has transformed nearly half the planet’s land surface—also uses up about 70 percent of the global fresh water supply.”  Everything that must be changed is spelled out.  https://phys.org/news/2019-01-human-diet-catastrophic-planet.html

Severe deforestation in Brazil is mostly attributed to growing demand for meat and biodiesel fuel (Mongabay).

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The Colorado River is in big trouble because of overusage and unrelenting drought (Yale e360).  This is Part I of a report that should get a high level of attention, as many millions of people are affected.  Among the main consequences of a growing water shortage one can expect cutbacks in agriculture and economic growth in general, giving climate mitigation an inconvenient sort of assist.  Nature has its own way of forcing changes in human behavior that never should have been allowed in the first place.
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In another piece from Mongabay, a strong case is made for the importance of protection and development of forests as a solution to climate change.  Such action is recognized as equal to the need to reduce carbon emissions from the energy sector but badly fails to get the same level of attention and resources.  The authors say that today’s forests hold 1.3 times more carbon than found in the world’s untapped fossil energy sources, now being progressively lost to deforestation.  There is no better way to recapture CO2 from the air than by growing more trees.
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One more piece for today about a major tragedy in the making due to forest destruction, from Yale e360.  New Guinea holds one of the world’s last great rainforests, loaded with biodiversity.  The island is now gaining 2700 miles of new highways in order to open up virgin territory for development.  “As is always the case, the construction of an extensive road system spells the beginning of the end of these wilderness areas as roads open the way for illegal deforestation, poaching, wildfires, and land investors bent on encouraging a building boom.”
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A picture story from Greenland about the workers who retrieve the ice cores that help to reveal Earth’s climate history (The Guardian).
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On the lighter side, these pictures from The Siberian Times show people who ran in a marathon race when temperatures reached a low of -52C, or -62F.
Carl

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