Melting Russian permafrost could speed up global warming and have a devastating impact on the planet | World Economic Forum
Category: Global Change
On Helloween (!) 2008 (!!), I published a lonesome post on my then wordpress-hosted blog. With that, I created #FLOGW and #FLGW. The world looks different today – or not.
Feilner’s Law of Global Warning states:
“I believe that the climatic change driven by the green house effect will become faster and faster as we watch. Analog to Moore’s Law in processor technology, the measured climatic change will always happen faster than the most skeptical experts of the previous years had suspected. That’s my rule of climatic change, Feilner’s Law of Global Warming (FLGW).”
Here’s my collection.
Let’s make Co2 the new unified world’s currency
I just had another weird, unreflected idea: How about making Co2 the new currency. It would need to be reverse, and different from all other currencies. And it needs a lot more proper thought, I am totally aware of it. Maybe it doesn’t work, but think about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_price
Let’s say, 1 Carb equals 1 t of Co2 that you’ve successfully taken out of the vicious circle. I wonder if something like that would really work. And no, it should not work like the stupid certificates.
Introducing The Shift Project
Our purpose – The Shift Project, carbon transition think tank … :
“The Shift Project is a French think tank advocating the shift to a post-carbon economy. As a non-profit organisation committed to serving the general interest through scientific objectivity, we are dedicated to informing and influencing the debate on energy transition in Europe.”
‘Digital sobriety’ can halt tech-fuelled global warming, says report | New Scientist … :
“The Shift Project wants companies and governments to adopt “digital sobriety” as a principle. That means buying less-powerful machines, replacing them less frequently and not using energy-intensive approaches where possible. Although there is some evidence that consumers are replacing smartphones less often, the general trend is to do more with ever-more-powerful machines. Artificial intelligence in particular is extremely energy-intensive.“
Das multilaterale Weltwirtschaftssystem wird nicht zurückkommen
Handels- und Währungskrieg: Warum das Weltwirtschaftssystem weiter zerfallen wird – SPIEGEL ONLINE … :
“Jetzt ist diese Ära unzweifelhaft zu Ende. Trump ist dafür eher Symptom als Ursache. Er ist der demolition man, eine Art oberster Abbruchbeauftragter der alten Ordnung. Das multilaterale Weltwirtschaftssystem wird nicht zurückkommen, egal wer nächstes Jahr zum US-Präsidenten gewählt wird.“
Reichtum und Immobilien.
In diesem Artikel hier sind ein paar echt schöne Sätze drin: Wohneigentum: Zutritt verboten (neues-deutschland.de)
“Denn im hiesigen Wirtschaftssystem ist nicht reich, wer ein Haus hat. Sondern wer das Haus eines anderen hat.”
“Wahrer Reichtum besteht in dem, was man nicht braucht, sondern was andere brauchen und von dem man sie ausschließen kann.”
3 things we need to do about Google and Facebok (and GAFA)
5 billion Dollar? Who cares, Facebook earns that in a month and their stock price went up. Here’s John Naughton’s veiw. He is professor of the public understanding of technology at the Open University and wrote in the Guardian: Money’s no object for Facebook, so hit it where it hurts | John Naughton | Opinion | The Guardian
“First, regulators need to focus on these companies’ capacity to hoover up and monetise the data they extract from their users’ online behaviour. Since much of this data has been accumulated in a lawless (or at any rate law-free) environment and it now constitutes their most valuable asset (not to mention the insuperable barrier to entry for potential competitors), Google and Facebook should be obliged to make the data available to other organisations (including in the public sector) under controlled conditions.
Second, given that the entire digital industry runs on data, competition authorities ought to be much more sceptical about the acquisition strategies of digital giants. (…) Facebook ought never to have been allowed to acquire WhatsApp and Instagram. (…) Nothing comparable in the media industry would have been allowed, or indeed in many other areas of industrial life. Equally, Google should never have been allowed to buy YouTube, and it should now be compelled to hive it off as a separate outfit.
Third, competition authorities should put the opaque, high-speed data-trading marketplaces owned and operated by Google and Facebook under the microscope – as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority now intends to do. In no other area of industrial life would companies be allowed to be operators of such vast and entirely opaque marketplaces.”
Meanwhile, in France:
The Debate – France takes on Silicon Valley: Washington threatens tariffs over GAFA tax
It’s not just Trump: the consensus goes beyond party lines in the United States to defend the interests of a Silicon Valley that to a large degree seems to own the internet. What is fair taxation in the era of globalisation? The OECD and G20 nations are working on it and France has said it will scrap the new tax once fresh rules are in place globally.
Jetzt oder nie.
Gutachten zur CO2-Steuer: Es gibt jetzt keine Ausreden mehr – SPIEGEL ONLINE … :
“Das ist durchaus Erfolg versprechend: In China “wird mindestens so intensiv über höhere CO2-Preise nachgedacht wie hierzulande”, sagte Klimaökonom Edenhofer dem SPIEGEL. Wenn Angela Merkel nicht am Ende als die Kanzlerin in die Geschichte eingehen will, die die Zukunft verspielte, sollte sie ihren Verzögerungsminister Altmaier weiter nach hinten und SPD-Umweltministerin Svenja Schulze weiter nach vorn stellen. Der richtige Vorschlag liegt schon auf dem Tisch, es gibt keine Ausreden mehr, ihn nicht umzusetzen.“
Welsh village abandoned due to climate change.
Reality update: The Welsh village being abandoned to the sea because of climate change – Wales Online … :
“The concerns are based on climate change and the speed at which it takes hold. Sea levels continue to rise. It’s estimated that current levels are more than 100 metres higher than during the last ice age, and that they could rise by a further two metres over the next century. In short, there will be no money spent on defending this community of around 400 homes and 850 people after 2054. The harsh and unforgiving word ‘decommission’ has been banded about – the death of a community facilitated by its inhabitants being forced to move out, its shops closed down, its houses demolished to make way for salt marsh.“
The Bad Boys of Brexit
Farage, Banks and Bannon. They are some of the well-known Bad Boys of Brexit.
” But there are many more. The Bad Boys of Brexit are an unholy alliance. They are global Money Men💰, small-state Regulation Burners🔥 and people with highly questionable Russian Connections 🇷🇺, some of whom have undermined the very foundations of democracy.“
Insect apocalypse: German bug watchers sound alarm
Not really news. But bad one nevertheless. Seems like this is becoming main stream accepted knowledge now. Maybe too late.
https://m.phys.org/news/2019-07-insect-apocalypse-german-bug-watchers.html
Die letzte Generation mit Handlungsfreiheit.
Weltklima auf der Kippe | Telepolis … :
“Der Sommer 2019 könnte als die große Umbruchszeit in die Menschheitsgeschichte eingehen, in der das Überschreiten der Kipppunke des globalen Klimasystems evident wurde – falls in den kommenden Dekaden überhaupt noch so etwas wie Geschichtswissenschaft betrieben werden sollte.“
1.5 °? Well, only without new coal/oil/gas infrastructure
Committed emissions from existing energy infrastructure jeopardize 1.5 °C climate target | Nature
Klimaforscherin zur Hitze in Europa: „Künftig wahrscheinlich jeden Sommer über 40 Grad“ – Wissen – Tagesspiegel Mobil
“Alle Hitzewellen in Europa sind wahrscheinlicher und intensiver geworden aufgrund des menschgemachten Klimawandels. Es gibt keine europäische Hitzewelle in der heutigen Zeit, bei der der Klimawandel keine Rolle spielt. Wie groß diese im Einzelfall ist, hängt davon ab, wo die Hitzewelle ist, in welchem Monat und ob man sie in einem größeren Gebiet anschaut, etwa Europa oder Deutschland, oder ob sie auf kleinerem Raum betrachtet wird, etwa einzelne Städte.“
#flogw
Antartic sea ice melting much faster than expected
#flogw:
‘Precipitous’ fall in Antarctic sea ice since 2014 revealed | World news | The Guardian … :
“The plunge in the average annual extent means Antarctica lost as much sea ice in four years as the Arctic lost in 34 years. The cause of the sharp Antarctic losses is as yet unknown and only time will tell whether the ice recovers or continues to decline.“
Cooked Mussels anyone?
Heatwave cooks mussels in their shells on California shore | Environment | The Guardian
“The University of British Columbia biologist Christopher Harley documented a similar event at Bodega Head in 2004, but he and Sones believe this one was probably bigger. “These events are definitely becoming more frequent, and more severe,” said Harley, citing diminishing mussel beds along the west coast, up to British Columbia. “Mussels are one of the canaries in the coal mine for climate change, only this canary provides food and habitat for hundreds of other species.”
When AOC met GT… there’s still hope…
When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: ‘Hope is contagious’ | Environment | The Guardian
“One is America’s youngest-ever congresswoman, the other a Swedish schoolgirl. Two of the most powerful voices on the climate speak for the first time
(…)
In the course of their conversation, Ocasio-Cortez and Thunberg discuss what it is like to be dismissed for their age, how depressed we should be about the future, and what tactics, as an activist, really work. Ocasio-Cortez speaks with her customary snap and brilliance that, held up against the general waffle of political discourse, seems startlingly direct. Thunberg, meanwhile, is phenomenally articulate, well-informed and self-assured, holding her own in conversation with an elected official nearly twice her age and speaking in deliberate, thoughtful English. They are, in some ways, as different as two campaigners can get – the politician working the system with Washington polish, and the teenager in her socks and leggings, working from her bedroom to reach the rest of the world. There is something very moving about the conversation between these young women, a sense of generational rise that, as we know from every precedent from the Renaissance onwards, has the power to ignite movements and change history.”
Frankreich leidet unter Rekordhitze: Knapp 46 Grad im Gard – 50 Grad möglich
Record absolu de chaleur : 45,9 °C enregistrés à Gallargues-le-Montueux dans le Gard – midilibre.fr … :
“Un record vient d’être battu, et ce n’est pas vraiment une bonne nouvelle. Pour la première en fois en France, la barre des 45 °C a été dépassée : il fait plus de 45,9°C à Gallargues-le-Montueux dans le Gard. Et cela au mois de juin. Du jamais vu, au cours d’un épisode caniculaire intense, marqué par l’alerte rouge.”
Und weiter in der Monde:
Extremwetter: Wenn “Aus Erkenntnistheorie Erkenntnispraxis” wird
Reality update: Extremwetter: Ist das noch Wetter oder schon Klima? | ZEIT ONLINE … :
“Dass sie es heute dennoch tut, verdankt sie ihrem zweiten Fach, der Philosophie. “Aus Interesse” hatte sie damit angefangen, neben der Physik. Dieses Interesse trug sie bis zur Doktorarbeit. In der machte sie ihr Unbehagen aus der Physikmasterarbeit zum Thema und promovierte über den “epistemischen Status komplexer Klimamodelle”. Anders gesagt: Sie betrachtete das zentrale Werkzeug der Klimaforschung aus der Warte der Erkenntnistheorie.
(…)
Aus Erkenntnistheorie wird Erkenntnispraxis
Deren grundsätzliche Idee sei “supersimpel”, erklärt Otto. Attribution heißt eigentlich “Zuordnung”, und die Methode beruht darauf, dass man die echte Welt mit einer heilen Parallelwelt ohne Treibhauseffekt vergleicht. Zur Erklärung des Prinzips genügt Otto eine Folie mit einer roten und einer blauen Kurve: Die rote steht für die reale Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass ein bestimmtes Wetterextrem (wie etwa eine Hitzewelle) heutzutage auftritt. Die blaue Kurve hingegen repräsentiert die hypothetische Wahrscheinlichkeit desselben Extrems ohne die Erwärmung der vergangenen anderthalb Jahrhunderte. Der Unterschied beider Kurven zeigt dann den Einfluss des Klimawandels. So weit, so simpel. Im Detail wird die Sache allerdings beliebig kompliziert und erfordert hohe Rechenleistung.”
Plastiglomerates and Plasticrusts: Our Plastic waste is covering rocks at the beautiful cliffs of of Madeira.
A Depressing New Type of Pollution Has Started Showing Up on Shoreline Rocks … :
“Sadly this isn’t the first time that human-made plastic has tied itself so closely to natural rock – cast your mind back to 2014 and the discovery of plastiglomerates, rock-like substances made from melted plastic and organic debris.“
Guardian: ‘Climate apartheid’: UN expert says human rights may not survive
In the Eighties and Nineties, we used to call that “climate dictatorship”, but no one would believe us.
“The world is increasingly at risk of “climate apartheid”, where the rich pay to escape heat and hunger caused by the escalating climate crisis while the rest of the world suffers, a report from a UN human rights expert has said.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/25/climate-apartheid-united-nations-expert-says-human-rights-may-not-survive-crisis