Climate Letter #1542

A new study highlights the need to gain more information about how nature benefits human sustainability (McGill University).  The loss of biodiversity is continuing, resulting in a loss of ecosystem services vital to humans.  By way of contrast, the information being sought represents a greater need today than it ever was for indigenous societies that have survived for millennia.  Among seven recommendations for further research we find this:  “How can we better monitor long-term trends in key ecological and social processes to prevent the biodiversity loss and halt the land degradation associated with climate change?”  (Even if all the recommended knowledge is acquired, are today’s consumer-oriented and growth-addicted societies sufficiently motivated to pursue the achievement of sustainability if significant sacrifices and other unusual changes are thereby required?  Something to think about.)

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The global environmental editor for The Guardian tells his own story, based on nearly three decades of global travel and study.  “The trends for the climate, the oceans, the forests and the soil are unrelentingly frightening. Humanity has never faced a more wicked problem than the collapse of these natural life support systems.”  He admits to being depressed by it all but sees a dramatic reawakening and changes of behavior in the past year as signs of hope.
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A new study finds that many countries are far from being prepared to meet future climate impacts that are known to be coming (Carbon Brief).  Two of the authors have written this review of the study.  They note that the intense focus on cooperative efforts to mitigate risk have overlooked the need to perform similar efforts toward adaptation.  As a result many countries with weak governance are likely to experience grave damage that could have been avoided.  “One of the reasons for underrepresentation of adaptation in modelling strategies might be that it is extremely complex to quantify.”  The study has proposals that may help to correct this weakness, based in large part on the reality that poor countries with responsible governments are the ones most likely to benefit from outside assistance.
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Research brief:  Nutritious foods have lower environmental impact than unhealthy foods (University of Minnesota).  “For the first time, researchers have tied the health impacts of foods to their overall environmental impact. The report….concludes that foods with positive health outcomes have among the lowest environmental impacts, while other foods, such as red meat, can be especially harmful to both…..The researchers explored how consuming 15 different food groups is, on average, associated with five different health outcomes and five aspects of environmental degradation.”
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Early humans were affected by climate change 130,000 years ago (Garvan Institute of Medical Research).  “A landmark study pinpoints the birthplace of modern humans in southern Africa and suggests how past climate shifts drove their first migration.”  Some very interesting history of our ancestors in this report.
Carl

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Climate Letter #1541

New research finds evidence of historical changes in ENSO variability, with an important note relevant to current events (AGU100).  The variability is confirmed by coral records that go back 7000 years.  The key finding of current relevance:  “We find that ENSO variability over the last five decades is ~25% stronger than during the preindustrial. Our results provide empirical support for recent climate model projections showing an intensification of ENSO extremes under greenhouse forcing.”  That means we should anticipate more El Nino events like the one four years ago, or possibly stronger.  La Nina events, also part of ENSO, were not mentioned, nor was there an explanation for how global warming is causing this particular kind of change to happen.

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Is it too late to stop dangerous climate change?  (WIREs Climate Change).  This editorial commentary from the Royal Geographical Society (UK) offers a collection of nine Opinion Articles on that subject, all of them having well-qualified authorship.  “This collection of essays reveals a diversity of ways of thinking about the relationship between climate and humanity, different modes of analysis, and different prognoses for the future, ranging from qualified pessimism through pragmatic realism to qualified hope.”  There is also a summation and personal commentary by the person who represents the Society.  It’s all here to be read, quite lengthy, but you can easily pick and choose items of most personal interest.
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California’s latest wildfire (Reuters).  I’m sure you already know everything about it, but this post, at minimum, can be inserted just for the record.  It also provides a quick answer to the question raised in the preceding story.  Yes, it is clearly too late to prevent dangerous climate change in the form of extreme wildfires in areas of dense human habitation, as represented by this one and others like it, now breaking out one after another.
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All of the world’s great beaches could disappear (CNN travel).  The threat from sea level rise is clear to everyone, but that’s only half the problem.  Nature has intended to simply move the sand inward.  “What it did not, some scientists say, are the buildings that tower over some of the world’s most popular beaches…..In many cases, this real estate that is coveted for its proximity to the beach is disrupting natural processes and in many places, increasing the rate of erosion…..Compounding the problem are the jetties, groins and other man-made structures built to keep sand from moving.”  CNN takes a close look at eight of the world’s most famous beaches and how they are boxed in by construction.
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A new way to remove CO2 from the air has been developed (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).  “The new system can work on the gas at virtually any concentration level, even down to the roughly 400 parts per million currently found in the atmosphere.”  The researchers believe the process has competitive advantages and can be scaled up.  They have set up a company with plans to commercialize the process.
Carl

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Climate Letter #1540

Worldwide, wildfires in the month of August were up almost five times over 2018 (European Space Agency).  Asia had the most of any continent, South America second.  “Even if the atlas cannot pick up all fires due to satellite overpass constraints and cloud coverage, it is statistically representative from one month to the other and from one year to the other…..We have never seen an increase of wildfires of this kind since the ATSR World Fire Atlas was created in 1995.”  No explanation was given.  (Be sure to click on the main image to see the visual comparisons.)

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A comprehensive new study finds that earthworms are sensitive to climate change, with potentially serious ecological and agricultural consequences (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research).  “In any single location, there are typically more earthworms and more earthworm species found in temperate regions than in the tropics. Global climate change could lead to significant shifts in earthworm communities worldwide, threatening the many functions they provide.”  The dataset encompassed 6928 sites in 57 countries, studied by 140 researchers.
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An IEA analysis shows vast potential for offshore wind power (The Guardian).  “A detailed study of the world’s coastlines has found that offshore windfarms alone could provide more electricity than the world needs – even if they are only built in windy regions in shallow waters near the shore…..The next generation of floating turbines capable of operating further from the shore could generate enough energy to meet the world’s total electricity demand 11 times over in 2040…..Birol said offshore wind would not only contribute to generating clean electricity, but could also offer a major opportunity in the production of hydrogen, which can be used instead of fossil fuel gas for heating and in heavy industry.”
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The surprising connection between free trade and the climate crisis (The Ecologist).  This article provides a superb introduction to the various effects of today’s international movement of goods as motivated by weird convolutions of policy-making.  Many examples are described, all of which apparently create profitability even while it is impossible for an ordinary person to see how that can be.  The general wastefulness and the negative effects on climate are much easier to see.
–The author of this story is a member of a group called Local Futures that is devoted to promoting the practice of purchasing from nearby sources.  Here is their website:
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Another story about global trade recommends a greater employment of sailing vessels (The Guardian).  The picture of a real beauty that is active today makes it worth opening the link for that alone.  There is much more solid information related to growth statistics and current pollution effects.  The chart showing the growth of tonnage carried on container ships from 1980 to 2017 should not be missed.
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A new theory about a source of CO2 emissions that could only happen during the depths of the ice age cycles (University of Bremen).  They helped to make changes we can truly appreciate.
Carl

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Climate Letter #1539

A massive new survey of Earth’s remaining wilderness and how it is fragmented (University of California – Davis).  The survey was conducted by the National Geographic Society through a comprehensive review of all existing and available information, tied to an ambitious goal of preserving as much real wilderness as possible for ecological reasons.  The main conclusion is that 56% of all land area that is not permanently frozen could be protected in a sustainable way, but much of that land is subject to some degree of fragmentation that would need to be brought under control.  Existing trends of further fragmentation would need to be reversed, which is still possible if promptly attended to.

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A separate study of land management practices of all types prescribes six priority actions that have high potential for success (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis).  “IIASA researchers contributed to the development of a new roadmap outlining actions on deforestation, restoration, and carbon cuts that could lead to the land sector becoming carbon neutral by 2040 and a net carbon sink by 2050.”  This action would account for a good 30% of the total worldwide goal for climate mitigation, separate from the needs to reduce burning of fossil fuels and employ negative emissions technologies, making it a truly substantial opportunity.
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A new study highlights the devastating impact of today’s high level of nitrogen pollution (Centre for Ecology &Hydrology).  “More than 150 top international scientists are calling on the world to take urgent action on nitrogen pollution, to tackle the widespread harm it is causing to humans, wildlife and the planet…..the present environmental crisis is much more than a carbon problem…..If we want to beat climate change, air pollution, water pollution, biodiversity loss, soil degradation and stratospheric ozone depletion, then a new focus on nitrogen will be vital.”  As an immediate goal, according to the study, nitrogen waste from all sources needs to be halved by 2030.
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India has sharply reduced its growth in carbon emissions (Carbon Brief).  This has global importance for one big reason:  “Since 2013, the country has accounted for more than half of the increase in global CO2 output.”  The main reason was a slowdown in the expansion of coal-fired electricity generation, mostly due to a surge in renewable power generation along with a slowdown in demand growth.  The shrinkage in coal burning also has great benefit with respect to air pollution, which is among the world’s worst.
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Deforestation in the Amazon continues even as the fires die down (Mongabay).  It’s all because of unscrupulous activity by land speculators who are reaping big profits, while the Bolsonaro government looks the other way.  The cutting goes on all year while the rubble is left for burning during the dry season.
–Here is a chart showing the year-by-year progression of Amazon deforestation since 1999 with estimated projections from the calculations of one expert through 2021, plus the link to a detailed policy brief from that expert: https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/amazon-deforestation-fast-nearing-tipping-point-when-rainforest-cannot-sustain
The Guardian also weighs in with several views about the potential for an irreversible tipping point in the future health of the rainforest:
Carl

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Climate Letter #1538

A good short review of the permafrost study that was outlined in yesterday’s letter (CBC News).  This review is based on an interview with one of the 75 co-authors.  “The research by scientists in 12 countries and from dozens of institutions is the latest warning that northern natural systems that once reliably kept carbon out of the atmosphere are starting to release it…..They found much more carbon was being released than previously thought. The results found carbon dioxide emissions of 1.7 billion tonnes a year are about twice as high as previous estimates…..The net result is that Arctic soil around the globe is probably already releasing more than 600 million tonnes of CO2 annually…..Egan notes the research didn’t measure methane, a greenhouse gas about 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide that is also released from soil.”  It looks like this research goes a full step beyond anything related to permafrost thawing emissions prior to today.  It offers a vivid demonstration of the fearsome power of climate change tipping points, which are under the control of nature itself.  Thanks to the singular speedup up in Arctic land area warming, this tipping point has arrived at an unexpectedly early stage in the overall trend, where the global average temperature gain has yet to reach 1.5C.

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–Note:  If you scroll down to near the bottom of the story there is an item called External Links that provides access to the full report, not just a summary, and quite readable.
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There is one more thing to be looking at which provides physical evidence that ever since 2012 the atmosphere has been gaining more CO2 content each year than ever before over a multi-year stretch.  Why so?  You may recall that Arctic warming took a big turn for the worse in that year and has remained ugly ever since.  During these same years a major El Nino did add some carbon for about twelve months but fossil fuel emissions have been relatively subdued.  This all suggests that nature has been adding unusual amounts of carbon by itself while the normal carbon sink may have entered a state of disrepair.  (I am showing the station at American Samoa because it tracks the CO2 trend the same as the one at Mauna Loa but with a bit more blending and seasonal stability.  Use a straightedge to clearly see how the track has shifted upward since 2012.)
https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/dv/iadv/tmp/1571846707.1662991.png
Canadian voters have given environmental issues a boost, including the prospect of a carbon tax (CBC News).  From Monday’s federal election, “We learned that a large majority of Canadians support political parties that promote a carbon tax, in one form or another. Roughly two-thirds of voters marked an “X” by the name of a Liberal, NDP, Green or Bloc Québécois candidate…..There are many reasons why a vote is cast for one party or another, but the environment seemed to be a top issue from the campaign’s start to voting day.”
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Evidence of a link between ocean acidification and mass extinction of marine species (The Guardian).  Researchers have gained new information through chemical analysis of seashell fossils laid down at the time of the dinosaur extinction, when three-quarters of marine species were wiped out.  “The researchers found that the pH dropped by 0.25 pH units in the 100-1,000 years after the strike…..The oceans acidified because the meteorite impact vaporised rocks containing sulphates and carbonates, causing sulphuric acid and carbonic acid to rain down….. we should be worried…..Researchers estimate that the pH of the ocean will drop by 0.4 pH units by the end of this century if carbon emissions are not stopped, or by 0.15 units if global temperature rise is limited to 2C.”
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An update on the progress of nuclear fusion (Oil Price.com).  Activity is continuing and there are some positive developments.  “…the Sparc team has set an ambitious target to have the reactor running in just 15 years.”
Carl

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Climate Letter #1537

A troublesome new estimate of current carbon emissions from thawing permafrost (Nature Climate Change).  This study estimated the amount of carbon lost during contemporary winter seasons due to warming of northern permafrost soils, creating information which has not been made … Continue reading

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Climate Letter #1536

Surprising growth of lush vegetation in the high Arctic after permafrost is gone (The Siberian Times).  These pictures provide a vivid demonstration of the progress of climate change in the top part of Siberia, only 1000 miles from the North Pole.  This is an area where palm trees once grew, and could conceivably return.  All of that growth does capture large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere, compensating for a possibly good share of the gases released whenever permafrost thaws.

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The IEA predicts rapid acceleration in the growth of rooftop solar installations over the next five years (Renew Economy).  This would constitute  a welcomed resurgence following a recent period of slowdown.  The forecast is based on an accounting of projects now planned or underway and the fact that costs keep coming down—probably by a third in coming years.  The untapped market for rooftop solar will remain enormous far beyond 2024.
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New research casts doubt on worst-case scenarios for sea level rise before 2100 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).  “The current worst-case scenario of sea-level rise from Antarctica is based on the idea that cliffs higher than 90 meters would fail catastrophically…..We’re saying that scenario, based on cliff failure, is probably not going to play out.”  The new model has taken a closer look at the stability of ice shelves that buttress the cliffs, now seeing their sustainable strength in a more favorable way.  The cliffs would still come down over time, but much more slowly.  (Maybe the new ‘worst-case’ will now drop to three or four feet by 2100 instead of upwards of ten or so?)
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A new study calculates the overall cooling effect of aerosols of the black carbon type (Yale University).  These are particles in the atmosphere that capture sunlight before it reaches the surface, which has a cooling effect below.  The particles then reradiate longwave energy, some of which does reach the surface, and also have a greenhouse effect which returns some of the energy that has come out from the surface.  Both of these processes have a warming effect.  Over the entire globe the net effect leaves a cooling of about 0.47C, about half of which is natural and half due to soot emitted by human activity.  Most of that is due to all the biomass burning for which we are responsible, and should prevent.
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A new technology offers the amazing possibility of recycling every kind of plastic waste, creating economic incentives for waste plastic to be collected instead of discarded (Chalmers University of Technology).  “End-of-life bio-based materials like paper, wood and clothes could also be used as raw material in the chemical process. This would mean we could gradually reduce the proportion of fossil materials in plastic. We could also create net negative emissions, if carbon dioxide is also captured in the process. The vision is to create a sustainable, circular system for carbon-based materials.”  Can this be real?
Carl

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Climate Letter #1535

There are two fine stories today about life in the Sundarbans coastal forest region of India and Bangladesh, where rising sea level is swallowing up land at the fastest rate of any place in the world.  Almost all of the residents are potential refugees, as it becomes more and more difficult to make a living.  The first, from Mongabay, is focused on the Indian side, where encounters with tigers are now one of the highlights:

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–This story from The Guardian is mostly based on scenes from the Bangladesh side, covering a wider variety of problems that are also traced back to effects of sea level rise.
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Scientists are clarifying their understanding of the definition and dangers of a new phenomenon, ‘flash drought’ (Chinese Academy of Sciences).  A new study describes how these droughts, which develop rapidly and without sufficient warning, have severe impacts, are now occurring in unusual places all over the world and are expected to increase in frequency.  “This indicates that anthropogenic climate change has changed the traditional arid areas, and more attention should be paid to deal with flash drought risks in humid and semi-humid areas.”  (Right now there is one in the SE region of the US.)
–The full study has open access, includes many different examples, and is easy to read:
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Powerful arguments in opposition to the practice of burning wood to generate electricity (Yale e360).  A distinguished environmental scientist explains why preserving old growth forests is the best way to have trees absorb high levels of carbon from the atmosphere “because little trees just don’t store much carbon.”  He has  amazing things to say about the current global wood burning industry: “The most disturbed forests in the world are in the United States, not the Amazon and not Indonesia. I don’t wish to lessen the significance of the Amazon and Indonesia. But the loss of forest canopy is the greatest in the Southeastern United States of any place on the planet.”  The whole story is told here, and it is very disturbing.
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An exciting discovery from research directed toward high density energy storage (Queen Mary University of London).  From an author of a new journal study, “This finding promises to have a significant impact on the field of pulse power applications and could produce a step change in the field of dielectric capacitors, so far limited by their low energy storage density…..this newly developed processing, pressing and folding, is unique for its simplicity, record high energy density and potential to be adopted by industry.”  Whether or not the discovery proves to be commercially viable, it is encouraging just to see research of this type being performed in a serious and successful way.
–Link to the full study, open access but highly technical:
Carl

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Climate Letter #1534

“Amazon Watch:  What Happens When the Forest Disappears?” (Yale e360).  Another piece of outstanding journalism by Fred Pearce, bearing on many aspects of the process whereby rainforest is converted to savanna.  One glaring detail:  “Deforestation is dramatically raising local temperatures. The air over the farm is on average 5 degrees Celsius hotter than in the forested reserve over the fence: 34 degrees C, rather than 29 degrees C. The difference rises to a staggering 10 degrees at the end of the dry season…..And the dry season is lengthening.”  As clearly explained, much is at stake here for the entire globe.

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A similar type of crisis is happening on the vegetated regions of Australia (The Guardian).  Native vegetation of all types is rapidly being cleared away for conversion to cropland, in most cases illegally.  The environmental consequences are severe, including adverse changes in the local climate.  This activity, not well-publicized abroad, has greatly accelerated in just the last three years.
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A new study has found a large amount of carbon being released by thawing of permafrost along Arctic coastlines subject to erosion (a Geophysical Research Letter from AGU100).  Existing models usually indicate a much slower rate of future thawing.  “Yet, along the rapidly eroding coastlines of the Arctic Ocean, which make up 34% of the Earth’s coastlines, whole stretches of the coast simply collapse, sink or slide into the ocean; including the previously frozen organic carbon…..Our study indicates that eroding permafrost coasts in the Arctic are potentially a major source of carbon dioxide. With increasing loss of sea‐ice, longer open‐water seasons and exposure of coasts to waves, we highlight the importance of coastal erosion for potential carbon dioxide emissions.”
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A state of the climate report through September of this year (Carbon Brief).  Zeke Hausfather does an expert job putting all the vital information together with the clearest of charting.  Note that El Nino/La Nina (or ENSO) conditions have had no effect this year and are projected to remain neutral well into next year.  On that same basis, look carefully at the chart separating land and ocean temperatures from 1880 to present.  The so-called temperature “hiatus” from 1998 to 2015 can be easily observed on the ocean line but not in the least bit on land.  That is because ocean surfaces were relatively cool during that period due to a prevalence of La Nina conditions under the influence of a different balance in the direction of trade winds over the Pacific.  Those winds have little to no effect on the temperature of land surfaces.  Starting in 2015 El Nino took charge and the ocean surface water, along with the air right above it, got much warmer.  Remember that the global average is always weighted to the tune of 70/30 in favor of ocean air temperature, and also remember that any rise in the surface temperature of the ocean is always likely to be held back because of the various ways that it keeps mixing with cooler water in the layer just below the surface, and so on down to even lower depths.  The oceans store much of the heat they collect (for so many years) while heat collected on land nearly all heads right back out to space—subject in all cases to speed limits imposed by greenhouse gases.
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An interesting story about the several advantages of a whole new design for wind turbines (Aarhus University).
Carl

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Climate Letter #1533

An interview with David Spratt about the solution to climate change (Climate Code Red).  This is an online version of a script that will be published in Germany by Energiewende MagazinDavid is an Australian who has spent decades doing research on climate change and issuing public warnings about the potentially catastrophic dangers of the current course of activity.  I believe what he has to say about the more worrisome views of many climate scientists is generally accurate, and that his criticism of the IPCC is appropriate.  He is a very serious man, well worth reading.  (I will have some comments to follow that express some minor differences.)

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Comments:  I see no reason to believe that the global temperature increase can be held to 1.5C by any possible means.  We are at 1.2C right now (see yesterday’s letter) and even if there are no more emissions at all, Earth’s current energy imbalance must be corrected over time in a natural way, adding another half degree or so of warming before rebalancing is completed (or when we stop storing more and more heat in the oceans).  That imbalance could theoretically also be corrected by an absolute reduction in the total content of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the prospect of which is effectively zero without some kind of miracle.  At the moment we are adding to those gases by record amounts, even as we are actively seeking to achieve some kind of slowdown.  In that respect, every success in one place or category is effectively offset by a failure somewhere else.  (See the story below about SUV sales as a sad example.)
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David talks about the need to mobilize global society on a scale comparable to the way societies mobilized for World War II, which would be very helpful in principle, but he doesn’t fill in the details about what that means in practice.  Think about the amount of consumption that people everywhere would need to give up, in a timely way, in order to make it happen.  Governments could force something like that to happen, but democratic governments would likely do so only if prompted by actual public demand for those cuts, something not not visible on any horizon, and autocratic governments are not known for leaning that way on their own initiative.
Individuals can still do a lot of things on their own in the way of cutting energy consumption and taking steps to protect the environment, while urging other individuals to do the same,  a practice that could use more encouragement whether or not it makes a real difference.  Also, making an effort to gain deeper knowledge of the predicament we are in, and its probable consequences, by taking time to study the science itself, is something better pursued than avoided.  Having plans ready for future adaptation to a worst-case scenario can be personally useful and maybe also serve to spread a useful message to others.
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Growing preference for SUVs challenges emissions reductions in passenger car market (a commentary based on the forthcoming World Energy Outlook 2019).  In short, electric car sales around the world are growing rapidly, but so are SUV sales.  “Bigger and heavier cars, like SUVs, are harder to electrify and growth in their rising demand may slow down the development of clean and efficient car fleets. The development of SUV sales given its substantial role in oil demand and CO2 emissions would affect the outlook for passenger cars and the evolution of future oil demand and carbon emissions…..If consumers’ appetite for SUVs continues to grow at a similar pace seen in the last decade, SUVs would add nearly 2 million barrels a day in global oil demand by 2040, offsetting the savings from nearly 150 million electric cars.”
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Cutting subsidies on oil and gas sales in less-developed countries is not a viable option (Climate Home News).  This experience brings home a lesson:  In places like Ecuador, both subsidy cuts and high carbon taxes, without compensation, as a means of reducing energy demand, would need to be limited to the wealthiest classes—with still uncertain reactions.
Carl

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