[GWSG] Rewilding UK farms; Japanese vertical lettuce; the decade in 7 charts; N Atlantic current forecast; Aus. fire chiefs call to action

[Tilley, Al]

1. Ian Boyd, former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, recommends that half of the nation’s farmland be taken out of food production and restored to the wild. Farmers would be paid for the carbon sequestered, and 20% of the lost food production would be replaced with vertical farming. Meat and dairy supplies, already unprofitable without subsidies, would be cut, and the nation’s diet would become largely plant-based. “We need a large, radical transformation and we need to do it quickly, in the next decade.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/31/convert-farmland-to-nature-climate-crisis



2. The average Japanese farmer is 67, and more are moving off the land to the city. Vertical farming of lettuce is helping to make up for the loss in food production, with tomatoes and strawberries on the way. https://phys.org/news/2019-12-grown-necessity-vertical-farming-ageing.html



3. Grist provides seven charts to represent our changing attitudes and actions regarding climate in the past decade. Whil atmospheric carbon and its effects build so does our will to action. https://grist.org/climate/we-broke-down-the-last-decade-of-climate-change-in-7-charts/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily



4. Simulations of the North Atlantic Current yielded negligible chances of a total shutdown over the next millennium, but a 15% chance of a temporary circulation pause in the next century. https://phys.org/news/2019-12-north-atlantic-current-cease-temporarily.html



5.  A group of five men representing 23 former Australian fire chiefs call on the Australian government to take climate action to protect the country in this press conference. The first chief had just returned from California, which is also suffering fires. It takes a little less than half an hour for the chiefs to speak in turn and then take questions. Active chiefs are not allowed to speak of the climate. Thanks to Ed Brock for the story. https://www.pscp.tv/w/1RDxlNmEojoGL

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