[GWSG] Food; positive fossil fuel feedback loop; Antarctic not losing mass?; two C tax advocates

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Fields around Morton, Illinois, produce 85% of the world's canned pumpkin.  The yield is down to half this year due to unusually heavy spring rains associated with global warming.  We will be out of canned pumpkin in about a month.  http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/07/pumpkin-pie-climate-change-christmas-crops   Wheat yields will drop with rising temperature.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/23/global-warming-cut-wheat-yields-research-shows  Corn, soy, and cotton are also expected to suffer.  http://farmenergy.org/news/climate-change-may-reduce-corn-soy-cotton-yields-80-by-2100   Coffee is already suffering from heat and drought.  http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/impacts/impacts-of-climate-on-coffee.html#.VhWF5HpViko  Wikipedia provides an overview of the impact of climate change on agriculture.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_and_agriculture   The food industry is becoming a forceful advocate of action on climate.  http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/oct/01/congress-mars-nestle-climate-change-republicans-donald-trump   Oxford researchers are working on a way to render plants more resilient under conditions of drought and increasing salinity.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/world-on-a-plate/2015/oct/07/scientists-find-gene-that-makes-plants-more-carefree-under-climate-stress  What survives a great extinction depends on the resilience of its food web.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/08/who-dies-and-who-survives-during-a-mass-extinction-a-tantalizing-clue/



2.  As we get more cheap solar and wind power, gas and coal plants sit idle for longer spells and they become more costly to operate per unit of power produced, which increases the use of solar and wind power, which makes them cheaper, which means we get more wind and solar, which further diminishes the role of fossil fuels.  This positive feedback loop is good news, in contrast to most of the positive feedbacks connected with climate.  http://climatecrocks.com/2015/10/07/finally-a-positive-feedback-that-really-is-positive-wind-sun-now-in-drivers-seat/



3.  A NASA study finds that on balance the Antarctic is not losing mass due to melt, and probably will not begin to for around twenty years.  Previous studies had found any mass gain in the East Antarctic overwhelmed by melting in the West.   http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/antarctic-ice-loss-challenged-by-new-nasa-study-20151006-gk2gwm.html



4.  South Korea's Hoesung Lee has been picked to succeed Rajendra Pachauri as chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  Lee is an economist who advocates pricing carbon directly.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/06/us-clmimatechange-science-idUSKCN0S02KG20151006  Christine Lagarde, chief of the International Monetary Fund, has called for a carbon tax.  She has also called for an end to the $5.3 trillion in annual subsidies for fossil fuels.  Forty countries and over twenty cities, states, and regions now have or are instituting carbon taxes.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/10/08/3710467/imf-says-to-tax-carbon/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cptop3  ?

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