A review by Phys.org of the new study about carbon loss from thawing permafrost (see yesterday’s letter). The most striking result of the study is found in this sentence: “They used this approach to directly measure soil carbon pool changes in a five-year period, showing an annual loss of more than 5 percent of soil carbon.” With negative compounding, that would mean a loss of 40% in just ten years, a far cry from the 5 to 15% loss by the end of the century assumed in most existing models. According to Edward Schuur, who designed and oversaw the project, “This is critical because carbon lost from these ecosystems ends up in the atmosphere and can accelerate climate change.” The testing was only done at one site. It now needs to be repeated all across the permafrost regions of the planet, which altogether hold about as much carbon as the atmosphere. That would determine the true prospect of realization of a very dangerous type of feedback effect. “Scientists who study the permafrost see a cycle: higher temperatures lead to more of the permafrost thawing, which leads to the release of soil carbon into the atmosphere, which leads to higher temperatures, which leads to permafrost thaw, and so on.”
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In view of this discovery, let’s take another look at what atmospheric CO2 concentration has actually been doing over the last 20 years. I have chosen the observatory at American Samoa because the numbers have less seasonal volatility than those at Mauna Loa. (Everything ends up the same either way.) Use any straightedge to look for any linear trends of at least four or five years, with not too many wiggles, in the image below. What I see is a highly linear trend from 2000 to 2012 with a steady rate right at 2 ppm per year, followed by a new trend that has shown a tendency to accelerate, especially since 2016. Indeed the very latest numbers from Mauna Loa have been showing up with gains of around 3 ppm year over year. The last seven years have featured quite a bit of real progress in the installation of renewable energy, causing a slowdown of measured emissions from human sources, and yet the CO2 level is accelerating. Is permafrost carbon release one of the main reasons? It’s a possibility.
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A deep investigation into the global beef trade that is destroying the Amazon through deforestation (The Ecologist). This two-part investigation centers on the activities of the world’s biggest meat-packing company. “Today we lift the lid on the company itself, and ask: what is the true cost of cheap meat?”
Here is the link to the second part, revealing incredible heights of corruption:
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A new kind of material captures far more solar energy as heat than any of today’s collectors (EurekAlert). It was developed by a group of researchers at MIT. “In tests on a rooftop on the MIT campus, a passive device consisting of a solar-absorbing dark material covered with a layer of the new aerogel was able to reach and maintain a temperature of 220 C, in the middle of a Cambridge winter when the outside air was below 0 C.” While potential applications are unlimited, and raw material costs are cheap, issues remain with regard to efficiency in achieving large-scale production.
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A contract for supplying solar electricity to Los Angeles sets new records for low price (Renew Economy). “A Californian solar and battery storage power purchase agreement is plumbing new lows for the cost of electricity from solar – a US-dollar price of 1.99c/kWh for 400MW of PV and 1.3c/kWh for stored solar power from a co-located 400MW/800MWh battery storage system.” By comparison, a new natural gas plant at that location would produce power at more than twice the cost per kWh.
Carl