[MCN] An exception to my weekly limit of one climate post per week

[Lance Olsen]

I recently posted 3 separate “rants” to my listserv. You’ll find all three below as a compilation

1 — Mining for renewables will burn through a lot fossil fuels, so persisting combustion of fossil fuels is a certainty

Mining has always been an energy intensive industry, the mining industry’s own continued demand for energy will necessitate a burning of fossil fuels, and that basic fact will apply to mining for all the metals required for batteries, solar panels, and windmills. 

Yes, there has been talk of using the renewables to power the mining for renewables. That’s all but certainly wishful thinking. Mining is just one of the many scrambling for access to renewable energy, and the market will impose its own form of rationing, where homeowners, businesses, car manufacturers and recently trains will compete to get their desires filled. And we’re only in the early stages of mining that will demand access to fossil energy for some time to come

The fossil fuel industries certainly know it, and their claims of persisting demand for their product seem at least partly based on what they know

Mining has well known harmful impacts. Ditto for combustion of fossil fuels. It’s not a matter of one or the other. We’ll be getting both. So far, we see the threats reported separately.

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2 — We can’t plant more oceans, and persisting combustion of fossil fuels is a certainty

In a rare case where Greta Thunberg seemed unaware of evidence from climate science, she has pushed for planting of trees. She described trees as a magic straw sucking carbon from the atmosphere. It was true enough, up to a point, but a sadly simplistic idea unlike her sophistication otherwise. While it’s obvious that forests are or at least have been a carbon sink, and the idea is still worth trying if we can get the details right, it’s becoming about equally obvious that forests are increasingly at risk from combustion of fossil fuels and the consequently hotter atmosphere

The oceans are also a natural carbon sink. Like forests, they are at risk from combustion of fossil fuels and the consequently hotter atmosphere.

Headed for a sixth mass extinction? MIT geophysicist warns oceans are on the brink 7 December 2021

Daniel Rothman says carbon in the atmosphere may push our seas past a tipping point, triggering a cascading catastrophe for global ecosystems that we do not yet fully understand

He published peer-reviewed papers on the subject in 2017 <https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1700906> and 2019 <https://www.pnas.org/content/116/30/14813#sec-15>.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/headed-for-a-sixth-mass-extinction-mit-geophysicist-warns-oceans-are-on-the-brink/ <https://www.timesofisrael.com/headed-for-a-sixth-mass-extinction-mit-geophysicist-warns-oceans-are-on-the-brink/>

Panel: Consider tinkering with oceans to suck up more carbon
December 8, 2021

The United States should research how to tinker with the oceans — even zapping them with electricity — to get them to suck more carbon dioxide out of the air to fight climate change <https://apnews.com/Climate>, the National Academy of Sciences  <http://www.nasonline.org/>recommends.

The panel outlines six ways that could help oceans remove more heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The scientists said the most promising possibilities include making the seas less acidic with minerals or jolts of electricity, adding phosphorous or nitrogen to spur plankton growth and creating massive seaweed farms.

But it’s unknown if they would work, would cost too much or cause more harm than good. So the panel of science advisers to the federal government Wednesday proposed spending more than $1 billion over the next decade to figure out the potential pitfalls and most effective methods of getting the world’s oceans to suck up more carbon.

https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-environment-and-nature-oceans-seaweed-fe6769ab266e2b995a8e43f3325d3190 <https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-environment-and-nature-oceans-seaweed-fe6769ab266e2b995a8e43f3325d3190>

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3 — We can’t plant more soils, and persisting combustion of fossil fuels is a certainty

Doubts over Australia Coalition’s net zero target as report finds soil carbon emissions may increase as climate warms
Exclusive: Rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns expected to increase losses and make it more difficult to identify net carbon emissions

In a separate government report <https://climatechange.environment.nsw.gov.au/Impacts-of-climate-change/Soil/Soil-Properties> detailing the modelling – known as NARCliM – used, scientists found the problem of soils releasing more carbon as conditions became warmer and drier would be statewide and would accelerate with further heating.

“From the average of the 12 models, in the upper depth interval (0 to 30cm of soil), there is a statewide average 2.5 tonnes of carbon per hectare decrease to the near-future change period [to 2040] and 5.1tC/ha to the far-future change period,” the second report said. The models ranged from as much as 1.6tC/ha additional carbon taken up on average to losses of as much as 12tC/ha.

Scientists have long known the carbon content in soil can vary considerably based on temperatures, moisture content and soil type, among other factors. For instance, rising temperatures tend to boost microbial activity that results in more of the carbon humus in the soil digested, and extra carbon dioxide emitted.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/dec/14/doubts-over-coalitions-net-zero-target-as-report-finds-soil-carbon-emissions-will-increase-as-climate-warms <https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/dec/14/doubts-over-coalitions-net-zero-target-as-report-finds-soil-carbon-emissions-will-increase-as-climate-warms>


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“Once confined to the margins, the ecological critique of economic growth has gained widespread attention. At a United Nations climate-change summit in September, the teen-age Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg declared, ‘We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!’ ” 

<<https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/10/can-we-have-prosperity-without-growth <https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/10/can-we-have-prosperity-without-growth>>>

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