[GWSG] Nuts zero; biomass shuck; floating houses; forests on their own; garages going under; Earth's Black Box

[Tilley, Al]

1. Pledges by corporations and governments to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions are often based on shaky offsets, or ignore significant emission sources. “They’re not fit for purpose, any of them,” said Myles Allen, director of Oxford Net Zero. Such pledges may be used as delaying tactics. 90% of global GDP is now covered by some sort of net-zero plan. Near-term emissions control targets carry more weight than do intentions to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.  https://phys.org/news/2021-12-climate-net-zero-scientists.html



2. By an accounting blunder in the Kyoto Protocol, burning wood pellets is counted as carbon neutral. It’s not. Almost 20% of the supposedly renewable energy in the EU comes from burning such biomass. They plan to increase that. Self-delusion on the issue is shared by Canadian and American timber interests. Carbon capture features in their fantasies of carbon neutrality. https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/the-millions-of-tons-of-carbon-emissions-that-dont-officially-exist?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_Control_120921&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_term=tny_daily_recirc&bxid=5be9cafe24c17c6adf39e724&cndid=18164692&hasha=8c547d53af6ff6fc7d49cb8612c07102&hashb=e0cd75d11efd01a0b77ab9e6aebc9acfab41dac0&hashc=fe17c36079354ec46082a9a7c8fc19c8d3b811c991613e650512e53c322cb659&esrc=CDS_OP



3. Floating houses, unlike houseboats, ride up and down with the water level on anchored steel posts, and are usually connected to sewer and power services on land. The Netherlands, with their experience in such buildings, is supplying designs for floating cities to such customers as the Maldives, and for whole floating islands in the Baltic with accommodations for 50,000 people. https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-dutch-flock-to-floating-homes-embracing-a-wetter-future



4. If we leave damaged tropical forests to themselves they will recover in about twenty years. It is a relief to recognize that we don’t know enough to meddle, and don’t need to. The secondary forests which form on abandoned farm plots absorb much more carbon than do old growth forests. There may be special cases which call for active restoration, but it should be a fallback option.   https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/09/tropical-forests-can-regenerate-in-just-20-years-without-human-interference



5. In coastal areas ground water is typically higher than sea level. In Florida the ground water levels are getting higher than the floors of parking garages. https://phys.org/news/2021-12-seas-higher-underground-garages.html



6. Space explorers as I remember often find records of a civilization’s last days, kept as a diary or message to the future. Earth’s Black Box in Tasmania will begin its record with COP26 and add information on the climate crisis as it  becomes available on the internet. When the box is activated next year we will be able to check its contents online to see how we’re doing. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/10/climate-box-australia/

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