[GWSG] Climate grief; our chances; rising problems; gadget ratings; kelp's promise; S FL's water woes

[Tilley, Al]

1. One poll of Americans showed that the number of people “very worried” about climate has doubled over the past five years. “In 2020, an American Psychiatric Association poll found that more than half of Americans are concerned about climate change’s effect on their mental health.” Acknowledging the grief and the traumas is a good start toward coping with the crisis, and can become a source of commitment to personal and political actions. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/climate/climate-anxiety-stress.html?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_content=20210205&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20Daily

2. To do its bit in limiting global heating to 1.5C, the US will have to cut its emissions by 40-50% in the next ten years, according to some estimates. The NY Times editorial board assesses the Biden administration’s efforts, aspirations, and chances. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/06/opinion/biden-climate-change-environment.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20210207&instance_id=26856&nl=todaysheadlines&regi_id=43628374&segment_id=51168&user_id=8c547d53af6ff6fc7d49cb8612c07102

3.  Ground water in coastal areas is typically higher than the sea level. As sea level rises, so does ground water, bringing with it hidden contaminants. This story on the Bay Area program to detect contaminants before they rise to the surface indicates the necessity and difficulty of such a program for all coastal areas. https://www.npr.org/2021/02/08/963673676/near-coasts-rising-seas-could-also-push-up-long-buried-toxic-contamination

4. France now requires that products such as smart phones, TVs, and other electronics be labelled with a repairability index. The purpose is to cut down on waste and to work toward a more sustainable material culture, a circular economy. By 2024 the index will be replaced by a durability index and broadened to other consumer goods. https://grist.org/climate/why-frances-new-repairability-index-is-a-big-deal/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily
The relevance of the French initiative for this list lies in the need for us to imagine and begin to build a way of being more at home on the earth, a focus on a life beyond the climate crisis.

5. Maine’s Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences is embarking on a program to evaluate the impact of kelp permaculture on local water acidity around kelp farms in Maine, Alaska, and Norway. https://cleantechnica.com/2021/02/07/got-climate-change-kelp-can-help/
Tim Flannery’s Sunlight and Seaweed: An Argument for How to Feed, Power, and Clean Up the World (2017) sketches the exciting potential of deep-water kelp permaculture to pull carbon from the water and air for permanent sequestration on the ocean floor.

6. Southeast Florida’s water management system is only a few inches of sea level rise from failure. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-op-com-invading-sea-flood-control-20210204-vmu3gxr4sfbprj3wzea5odelm4-story.html

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