[GWSG] Biochar update; the urgency of action; 4.600 potatoes; Greenland tipping?; the CRYOBattery; COP 25 in Madrid

[Tilley, Al]

1. A summary of English experiments with biochar highlights its uses for increasing the health of newly planted trees, improving crop yields, and sequestering carbon. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/29/this-dark-material-the-black-alchemy-that-can-arrest-carbon-emissions



2. The dire effects of blind corporate greed include bushfires by tens of thousands, floods, health degeneration, extinctions,  and weakening government resilience.  “It is time not only to think the unthinkable, but to speak it: that the world economy, civilisation, and maybe our very survival as a species are on the line. And it is past time to act.”  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/29/countries-from-siberia-to-australia-are-burning-the-age-of-fire-is-the-bleakest-warning-yet

We know what we have to do: cease burning coal, oil, and gas; find ways to adapt to our new world. It’s a full agenda which should prove satisfying.



3. The International Potato Center in Lima, Peru, preserves over 4.600 varieties of potato. They promise enough genetic diversity to deal with drought, flood, and heat. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/29/how-perus-potato-museum-could-stave-off-world-food-crisis



4. Greenland appears to have passed its tipping point. The pace of its melt is still in question. http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/42772/20191129/oh-greenland-s-ice-now-death-sentence.htm



5. Europe’s largest grid power storage system, to be used in England, will be supplied by Highview Power. Excess power compresses, liquefies, and freezes air. When power is needed the air is expanded, heated, and used to drive a turbine. Highview claims it is the cheapest long- duration power storage for large systems, scalable and efficient. The CRYOBattery holds power well for weeks. https://climatecrocks.com/2019/11/30/largest-euro-battery-will-not-be-li-on/



6. The COP 25 meeting Dec. 2-13 in Madrid was intended to be a clean-up of loose ends from last year’s conference in Katowice. Recent findings and rising consciousness of the general threat have given the meeting greater urgency. Organizers expect around 25,000 attendees. Some worry about the possibility of hasty and ill-framed actions. Many feel the need for quick action. "Global warming is going faster," said Johan Rockström, co-director of Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. "Climate impacts are occurring earlier and we are approaching potentially irreversible thresholds earlier than we previously thought."  https://phys.org/news/2019-11-science-retreat-urgency-climate.html

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