[GWSG] Heating costs; 3/4 renewable; 5:1 advantage; CH4 builds; diversity crashes; ents rule; life of trees; life of everything

[Tilley, Al]

1. 2C of warming would cost the global economy about 1% of GDP. Uncontrolled heating would cost about 7% by 2100, and then about everything. The Green New Deal is the cheapest alternative by far. After a steep buy-in it actually creates jobs and increases wealth.  Much unlike fossil fuels.  https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/why-the-green-new-deal-is-cheap-actually-965794/



2. Nearly three-quarters of new power capacity in 2019 was from renewables, 90% of that cane from wind and solar power. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/06/new-renewable-energy-capacity-hit-record-levels-in-2019



3. Fossil fuels are such inefficient producers of energy, and renewables so efficient, that it takes only about 1/5 of renewable productive capacity to replace petroleum. Thanks to Tom Larson for this illuminating commentary on a report from the Lawrence Livermore Lab. https://electrek.co/2020/04/09/us-energy-chart-2019/



4. In a preliminary report NOAA said that methane in the atmosphere increased in 2019 by the greatest increment in five years. The meat industry and leakage from fossil fuel processing are indicated as the sources easiest to control. https://reneweconomy.com.au/renewables-accounted-for-nearly-three-quarters-of-global-new-capacity-in-2019/



5. A University College London study found that multiple species in a habitat are likely to cross beyond their historical survival boundaries as temperatures rise. The damage to biodiversity is likely to come in a series of sudden collapses rather than a steady degradation. The process is already underway in some areas. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-climate-sudden-biodiversity-losses-worldwide.html



6.  They may not stomp around like Tolkien’s ents, but giant old trees play a central role in healthy forests. We are coming to see that intelligent forestry manages carbon better. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/09/tolkein-was-right-giant-trees-have-towering-role-in-protecting-forests



7. I have found Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees (Greystone, 2016) a decided pleasure in my retreat from the virus. The German forester reports on discoveries of trees communicating, aiding, attacking, and otherwise forming a slow-motion community. If you enjoy the book, he has written two follow-ups, also well received, which are on my list.

The growing impression that trees display consciousness and intelligence may prepare you for another pleasure, Philip Goff’s Galileo’s Error (Pantheon, 2019), a defense of pan-psychism by an English philosopher. He published a textbook on the theory of mind with Oxford at the same time and wrote this one for us non-professionals. I was surprised to discover that pan-psychism is so respectable. Now, just as we threaten the web of life, we are discovering something of its nature.

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