[GWSG] Green sand a C coast; climate poll; the right half; Facebook finks; ag challenges & solutions; Arctic heatwave

[Tilley, Al]

1. If you grind olivine finely and spread it on a beach, as it is weathered by waves it will release minerals which support the growth of shelled sea creatures. As they die the carbon in their shells will fall to the sea floor, more or less permanently putting the carbon out of circulation. The cost of sequestration could be as low as $10 per ton of carbon. The potential for carbon capture is quite significant. An experiment is in progress to find out how quickly the process will work and whether it will have undesirable environmental side effects. The article surveys other carbon capture projects. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/22/1004218/how-green-sand-could-capture-billions-of-tons-of-carbon-dioxide/



2. A Pew Research Center poll finds that a large majority of Americans believe the government should do more to deal with the climate crisis, backing such measures as a carbon tax and a transition to renewable energy. 63% say their community is feeling the effects of climate change—83% of Democrats and 37% of Republicans. Republican communities seem to be blessed with protection from storms, floods, fires, and heat. (Coastal Republicans are a little less blessed.) The poll addresses gender and generational differences as well as party affiliation, and provides comparisons with similar polls in the past. Generally, we are becoming more aware of the problem and readier for action.   https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/06/23/two-thirds-of-americans-think-government-should-do-more-on-climate/



3. Simply protecting more land will not necessarily serve biodiversity. We need to provide alternatives for creatures in threatened habitats. It’s an obvious point, but not so easily translated into action in a “half earth” program. https://anthropocenemagazine.org/2020/06/climate-change-will-make-protected-areas-less-safe/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=climate-change-will-make-protected-areas-less-safe



4. Facebook has created a special category for climate information which will bypass fact checking by labeling the information as opinion. The change was requested (and then celebrated) by the CO2 Coalition, which has ties to the fossil fuel industry. Harvard’s Naomi Oreskes: “We know that many people, particularly young people, are getting their information heavily, or even primarily, from social media. For social media to propagate disinformation, without any attempt at screening, is for them to become, in effect, part of the disinformation machine.”  https://heated.world/p/facebook-creates-fact-checking-exemption?utm_source=facebook&simple=true&next=http://www.billmoyers.com



5. Yale 360 reports on efforts to develop food supplies adequate to our needs in a heating world. Both problems and solutions are on a jumbo scale. https://e360.yale.edu/features/from-the-lab-to-the-field-agriculture-seeks-to-adapt-to-a-warming-world



6. It’s 38C (100F) in the Arctic. Climate scientist Tamsin Edwards recounts what we know about the heatwave. Along the way she explains why she is not overly concerned about the possibility of runaway heating from carbon released as permafrost melts. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/25/arctic-heatwave-38c-siberia-science

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.unf.edu/pipermail/gwsg/attachments/20200626/1311f3da/attachment.html>