[GWSG] US megadrought; coastal flooding; fava for soy; EVs in Norway; covid-19 opportunity

[Tilley, Al]

1. The Western US has been in a megadrought since 2000, one of the two worst of the past 1200 years. (They use tree rings for dating, and that is as far back as the record extends.) A research team set out to determine whether we were headed for such an event and discovered that we are in one, more severe and widespread because of our burning of fossil fuels.   https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/04/16/southwest-megadrought-climate-change/?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter



2. Observations show that small levels of sea level rise increase coastal flooding exponentially. “Combining these growth rates with established sea-level rise projections, we find that the odds of extreme flooding double approximately every 5 years into the future.” The rise assumed in the study is a modest 1-2 meters this century.  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62188-4

I could not follow the technical argument in the article. PhysOrg supplies a helpful discussion. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-extreme-coastal-events.html



3. A Danish process replaces soy beans with fava beans as a protein source. Favas are more environmentally benign and not genetically modified. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-healthy-climate-news-fava-beans.html



4. Norway has set a goal of ending the sale of internal combustion vehicles by 2025. Electric vehicles accounted for 60% of new sales last month. A stunt by the band A-ha helped inspire the tax supports making the transition to EVs attractive. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/19/norway-and-the-a-ha-moment-that-made-electric-cars-the-answer



5. The climate crisis is likely to bring us floods and fires in the coming months. Covid-19 will make these harder to deal with, but the coming recovery from lockdown brings with it an opportunity to implement a green new deal to ease us out of the worst consequences of both crises. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/20/climate-crisis-will-deepen-the-pandemic-a-green-stimulus-plan-can-tackle-both

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