Climate Letter #1380

A new UN report on the global extraction of material resources has been issued, and it is terrifying (The Guardian).  “The biggest surprise to the authors was the huge climate impact of pulling materials out of the ground and preparing them for use. All the sectors combined together accounted for 53% of the world’s carbon emissions – even before accounting for any fuel that is burned.”  That alone complicates everything we normally consider when thinking of ways to combat climate change.  This story has too much information for me to summarize.  Every sentence will give you something to ponder over.

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–Here is another review, slightly shorter, that has some additional insights:
–A preview of the report in a release from the UN has more emphasis on the proposals for change that are recommended for correcting the current imbalance affecting real human needs across all nations.  For example, this sobering message: “Such projections are based on the understanding that growth rates in emerging and other developing economies must be balanced by absolute reductions in resource use in developed countries.”
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The term “anthropocene” has no geological meaning.  The author of this piece, writing for The Conversation, puts the current episode in Earth’s history into a deep-time perspective that fails to recognize much of a footprint.  That point is inarguable, and then his concluding remarks also make very good sense:  “The history of our far future, if we have one, will be one where we learnt to recognise interdependence with nature, with other species. In the end, it is about what it means to be human. As the late environmental philosopher Val Plumwood warned: “We will go onwards in a different mode of humanity, or not at all.”
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Geoengineering with a light touch might be helpful.  A research group has studied the application of solar radiation management of reduced intensity when compared with usual models and come to the conclusion that it should be taken seriously.  The well-known scientist Kerry Emanuel, a co-author of the study, has this to say:  “This study shows that a more modest engineered reduction in global warming can lead to better outcomes for the climate as a whole.”
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-dose-solar-geoengineering.html
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Some forests in the American West are not bouncing back very well after burning.  This is particularly true for ponderosa pine and Douglas fir in regions where they seem to have crossed a threshold of tolerance to prevailing changes in climate. “The warmer, drier air isn’t harming mature trees, but it is preventing future generations from growing.”
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A fascinating photographic study of a village in Siberia that is known to be the coldest place of human habitation on Earth.  “It is amazing how people decide to move here or stay here, in such a place, thinking it’s the best place in the world.”
Carl

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