<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">I recently posted 3 separate “rants” to my listserv. You’ll find all three below as a compilation<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class=""><b class="">1 — Mining for renewables will burn through a lot fossil fuels, so persisting combustion of fossil fuels is a certainty</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">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. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">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</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">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</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">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.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(251, 2, 7); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">---------------------------------------------</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><b class="">2 — We can’t plant more oceans, and persisting combustion of fossil fuels is a certainty</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">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 </span><span style="text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class=""><i class="">or at least have been</i> </span><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">a carbon sink, and the idea is still worth trying <i class=""><u class="">if we can get the details right,</u></i> it’s becoming about equally obvious that forests are increasingly at risk from combustion of fossil fuels and the consequently hotter atmosphere</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">The oceans are also a natural carbon sink. Like forests, they are at risk from combustion of fossil fuels and the consequently hotter atmosphere.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class=""><b class="">Headed for a sixth mass extinction? MIT geophysicist warns oceans are on the brink </b></span><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #323232; background-color: #ffffff" class="">7 December 2021</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">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</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(13, 13, 13); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(13, 13, 13);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">He published peer-reviewed papers on the subject in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1700906" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(37, 91, 221);" class="">2017</span></a> and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/116/30/14813#sec-15" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(37, 91, 221);" class="">2019</span></a>.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(13, 13, 13); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" class=""><span style="text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class=""><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/headed-for-a-sixth-mass-extinction-mit-geophysicist-warns-oceans-are-on-the-brink/" class="">https://www.timesofisrael.com/headed-for-a-sixth-mass-extinction-mit-geophysicist-warns-oceans-are-on-the-brink/<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" class=""></span></a></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(13, 13, 13); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(25, 25, 25);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class=""><b class="">Panel: Consider tinkering with oceans to suck up more carbon</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(92, 92, 92);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">December 8, 2021</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(25, 25, 25);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">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 <a href="https://apnews.com/Climate" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(13, 35, 129);" class="">climate change</span></a>, the <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(13, 35, 129);" class="">National Academy of Sciences </span></a>recommends.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(25, 25, 25); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(25, 25, 25);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">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.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(25, 25, 25); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(25, 25, 25);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">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.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" class=""><span style="text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class=""><a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-environment-and-nature-oceans-seaweed-fe6769ab266e2b995a8e43f3325d3190" class="">https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-environment-and-nature-oceans-seaweed-fe6769ab266e2b995a8e43f3325d3190<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" class=""></span></a></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(11, 54, 198); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(251, 2, 7);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">---------------------------------------------</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><b class="">3 — We can’t plant more soils, and persisting combustion of fossil fuels is a certainty</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><b class=""></b></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(15, 15, 15);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class=""><b class="">Doubts over Australia Coalition’s net zero target as report finds soil carbon emissions may increase as climate warms</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(15, 15, 15);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">Exclusive: Rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns expected to increase losses and make it more difficult to identify net carbon emissions</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(15, 15, 15); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(15, 15, 15); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">In <a href="https://climatechange.environment.nsw.gov.au/Impacts-of-climate-change/Soil/Soil-Properties" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #b80004" class="">a separate government report</span></a> 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.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(15, 15, 15); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(15, 15, 15); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">“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.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(15, 15, 15); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(15, 15, 15); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">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.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(15, 15, 15); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(16, 60, 192); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none" class=""><a href="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" class="">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</a></span></div><div class="">
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-decoration: none; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class=""></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-decoration: none; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-decoration: none; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">“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!’ ” </span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-decoration: none; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-decoration: none; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class=""><<<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/10/can-we-have-prosperity-without-growth" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); background-color: transparent; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);" class="">https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/10/can-we-have-prosperity-without-growth</span></a>>></span></div>
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