Climate Change

[Irrev-Black]

It's not just that there is no Planet B, there's no Somewhere Safe. Climate collapse be like that.

https://www.salon.com/2024/01/12/nobody ... te-change/

[pipbarber]

Climate change as a systemic problem. Found myself agreeing with gist of the paper as reported.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... scientists

“We need to become mindful of the way we’re being manipulated,” says Merz, who is co-founder of the Merz Institute, an organisation that researches the systemic causes of the climate crisis and how to tackle them.

Merz and colleagues believe that most climate “solutions” proposed so far only tackle symptoms rather than the root cause of the crisis. This, they say, leads to increasing levels of the three “levers” of overshoot: consumption, waste and population.

They claim that unless demand for resources is reduced, many other innovations are just a sticking plaster. “We can deal with climate change and worsen overshoot,” says Merz. “The material footprint of renewable energy is dangerously underdiscussed. These energy farms have to be rebuilt every few decades – they’re not going to solve the bigger problem unless we tackle demand.”

[stylofone]

Climate change as a systemic problem. Found myself agreeing with gist of the paper as reported.

It reminded me of articles I've read about William Catton, he wrote a book called "Overshoot" and argued that some human behaviour can't be controlled in the way we think it can be, and depleting resources is one of those things.

Meanwhile I just listened to an interesting radio documentary about the effects of climate change as seen by mountaineers. I didn't know that in alpine areas temperatures have risen twice as fast as the global average. One of the people interviewed said, if you visited a mountain 20 years ago, and came back there now, chances are you wouldn't see the snow and ice you used to see, and you'd say "wow, climate change is having a massive effect." But in the city you probably wouldn't have that awareness. They also talked about regions where the ground temperature used to be below zero all year round, but when it goes above zero that's a major tipping point. There are whole mountainsides which are now no-go areas because the ice that held them together is disappearing, and there's a constant risk of landslides and rock falls.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0h0l69l

[Irrev-Black]

(SNIP)

They also talked about regions where the ground temperature used to be below zero all year round, but when it goes above zero that's a major tipping point. There are whole mountainsides which are now no-go areas because the ice that held them together is disappearing, and there's a constant risk of landslides and rock falls.

Putting in a plug for eos.org, where Dave Petley's The Landslide Blog has long been on my subscription list.

[stylofone]

I missed this news earlier in the week. COP29 in December will be hosted by Azerbaijan, a petrostate like last year's host UAE. It will be chaired by a man who worked for the state oil company for 26 years. The organising committee is all male. What a farce!

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... azerbaijan

[joele]

Greenland's rapidly declining ice sheet has long been a source consternation for scientists and climate activists.

Cue the predictable outrage earlier this month when an enterprising start-up began to sell ice cut from the country's shrinking glaciers to exclusive bars in Dubai.

Now, in much worse news, NASA scientists who compared hundreds of thousands of satellite images, believe the world's second-largest body of ice has shrunk by a fifth more than previously estimated.

That could have implications for the ocean currents that regulate temperatures in Europe and North America, which in turn could have far-reaching effects for countries including Australia.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-19/ ... /103363612

[Irrev-Black]

Kashmir - putting the "no" in "snow".

In his 17 years of managing a hotel in Gulmarg, a picturesque town in Indian-administered Kashmir, Manzoor Ahmad has never seen a season without snow.

But this year, things are different: the snow-clad mountains in the region are oddly brown and barren.

"This is unprecedented," Mr Ahmad, 50, says, and adds that tourists have stopped making reservations at his hotel.

Every year, thousands of tourists visit Kashmir in winter to enjoy skiing and sightseeing. But the absence of snowfall this year has bought the region's tourism industry to its knees.

Another piece of a jigsaw that shows a picture of a sign reading "WE'RE FUCKED".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-68015106

[Irrev-Black]

Kashmir - putting the "no" in "snow".

In his 17 years of managing a hotel in Gulmarg, a picturesque town in Indian-administered Kashmir, Manzoor Ahmad has never seen a season without snow.

But this year, things are different: the snow-clad mountains in the region are oddly brown and barren.

"This is unprecedented," Mr Ahmad, 50, says, and adds that tourists have stopped making reservations at his hotel.

Every year, thousands of tourists visit Kashmir in winter to enjoy skiing and sightseeing. But the absence of snowfall this year has bought the region's tourism industry to its knees.

Another piece of a jigsaw that shows a picture of a sign reading "WE'RE FUCKED".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-68015106

More of same.

https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/climate ... ow-ceases/

[nibble]

Another climate warming catastrophe in the making

"BENTUK JAYA, Indonesia — Indonesia has been clearing tens of thousands of acres of densely vegetated peatland for farming, releasing massive amounts of carbon that had been sequestered below for centuries and destroying one of the Earth’s most effective means of storing greenhouse gases. "

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/in ... r-BB1gVLax

[Irrev-Black]

Another climate warming catastrophe in the making

"BENTUK JAYA, Indonesia — Indonesia has been clearing tens of thousands of acres of densely vegetated peatland for farming, releasing massive amounts of carbon that had been sequestered below for centuries and destroying one of the Earth’s most effective means of storing greenhouse gases. "

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/in ... r-BB1gVLax

Is this a case of "we're moving to a new capital city because the old one floods anyway, and fuck the peasants"?

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/28/indones ... -easy.html