[GWSG] Forest C problems; mya C; housing crisis; housing solution; Arctic regime change; Dalai Lama on unity

[Tilley, Al]

1. Elevated CO2 concentrations appear to hamper forest growth. One implication is that reforestation should be expected to become less effective in C capture and storage, though to remain important in that and other ways. https://e360.yale.edu/features/will-climate-change-upend-projections-of-future-forest-growth



2. An analysis of the boron in the shells of foraminifera will indicate the acidity of the ocean when the shells were formed. The acidity is a good guide to the C in the water, which is linked to the C in the atmosphere. We now have as much C in the atmosphere as we did 3.3 million years ago in the Pliocene, when the earth was 3C hotter than it is today (the climate takes a while to catch up to our burning of fossil fuels). By 2025 we will have reached levels of C last experienced 15 million years ago in the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-carbon-dioxide-earth-atmosphere-higher.html



3. Along with the climate crisis and the strains of dealing with covid-19, we are suffering a housing crisis. By fall we could see 20-28 million people in the US homeless, following a wave of evictions.  https://www.bing.com/search?q=20-28+million+homeless+in+the+us+news&cvid=500ba4a96e65439d881e914a8404efaa&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=DCTS



4. As we search for better ways to live which will allow us to adjust our lives to available resources sustainably, we might look to some of the thousands of intentional communities now in progress. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-greener-fairer-ways.html



5. As the Arctic warms, its waters are unexpectedly fertile in producing the phytoplankton which are at the base of the marine food chain. Creatures adapted to the cold of former years will be in deepening difficulty, but new life will arise in a regime change. The Arctic will sequester more C, but the ocean is so small that it will not make a great difference in our C balance. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-regime-shift-arctic-ocean-scientists.html



6. The Dalai Lama has retired from politics but not from ecology. He observes that we need to unite in our actions to preserve the world. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/dalai-lama-we-must-act-as-one-to-preserve-our-world/ar-BB16AwpY?ocid=msedgntp

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