[GWSG] Chinese enviros; adaptive architecture; Fed to join greens; E busses; ESCIMO's warning

[Tilley, Al]

1. As China takes on the changes brought by the climate crisis, the Chinese, government and citizens alike, are becoming more conscious of their relationships with the natural world. As Trump’s sacking of the environment draws to a close, a new spirit of constructive competition with the US promises to emerge. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/13/ma-jun-china-is-beginning-to-walk-the-walk-on-climate-crisis-action-aoe

2. Architects are responding to the climate crisis with designs intended to adapt to a changing environment. The featured buildings cope with sea level rise (at least, by the milder projections). https://www.cnn.com/style/article/flooding-architecture-projects-spc-intl-c2e/index.html

3. The US Federal Reserve has applied to join the Network for Greening the Financial System, an association of central banks which requires membership in the Paris Accord. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/11/finally-potential-nod-biden-win-federal-reserve-applies-join-climate-network-central

4. School districts in Virginia and Massachusetts have been supplied with electric busses. At least one in Beverly, MA, has a paint job dimly reminiscent of Further, bus of the Merry Pranksters. https://cleantechnica.com/2020/11/13/new-electric-school-buses-in-virginia-massachusetts/
The electric bus at Charlotte Airport, released from the school bus aesthetic, looks even more sporty. The airport is pursuing a package of other energy transition measures.  https://cleantechnica.com/2020/11/12/charlotte-airport-gets-electric-buses-whos-next-atl-iad-jfk/

5. A simple climate model, ESCIMO, indicates that changes in the earth’s albedo, the increasing water vapor in the atmosphere, and imbalances in carbon fixation and release have combined to initiate a heating which would proceed even if we ended all human emissions this year. In fact, we would have to have ceased emissions in 1960-70 to avoid the track we are on. The only way to reverse the process would be to draw down and sequester massive amounts of carbon.
A number of climate scientists have objected that the conclusion is not sufficiently supported. The general informed opinion, including that of the authors, seems to be that the issue requires further study, but that meanwhile we would do well to take it as a warning to eliminate emissions as soon as at all possible, and to investigate more seriously the scalable carbon drawdown processes. https://cleantechnica.com/2020/11/14/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-or-not/
Nature has made the article openly accessible. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75481-z

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