[GWSG] Lake O down; animal CH4 up; and oilfield; CH4 awful; ; new target needed; IMO useless; Indians getting land back; cascade of tips

[Tilley, Al]

1. Oxygen in the world’s lakes is declining faster than it is in the oceans, threatening water quality and biodiversity. Since 1980 oxygen in temperate zone surface water has dropped by 5% and in deep waters, 19%. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/02/climate-crisis-is-suffocating-the-worlds-lakes-study-finds

2. Direct measurement of methane levels above and downwind from animal production facilities shows 39-90% more than reports indicate is being emitted. Emissions projections need to be adjusted, as do the expectations of nations imitating our animal raising methods.  https://phys.org/news/2021-06-understating-climate-emissions-meat-dairy.html

3. Fixing 123 persistent methane sources in the largest US oilfield would avoid 5.5% of the nation’s emissions from oil and gas production. https://phys.org/news/2021-06-intermittent-methane-emissions-permian-basin.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
The leakage from fossil fuel production  appears to be far more than the .25% reported by the industry.

4. Cutting methane emissions has much more immediate effect on global heating than does cutting CO2. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/climate/methane-leaks-united-nations.html

5. The UN’s Global Methane Assessment calls for a 45% reduction in methane from human activity this decade so that we can meet the 1.5C target for increased global heat. https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/05/1091402
Given the increased emissions measured from meat and dairy production, 45% will need to be adjusted well upward. Another driver upward will be the level of leakage (and intentional release) recorded in item 3. The meat and dairy industry should be faced with a programmatic global shift to a plant-based diet, and the methane industry requires to be throttled.

6. The International Maritime Organization is a UN group charged with regulating the shipping industry. It has been obedient to the financial interests of the industry and wholly ineffective in controlling emissions. The EU and the US are moving to bypass it.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/03/world/europe/climate-change-un-international-maritime-organization.html

7. Several Indian tribes across the US and Canada are receiving ancestral land for conservation management. While that intention has sometimes not been served, the traditional methods are typically effective. https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-returning-lands-to-native-tribes-is-helping-protect-nature

8. A third of the tipping points of climate systems such as the Amazon rain forest and the Greenland ice sheet would lead systems to interact, producing a cascade of destructive changes. The threshold of such changes, as indicated by the risk analysis from the Potsdam Institute, lies below the higher Paris goal of 2C. The good news is that runaway heating is “extremely unlikely.” ““The Earth will get as warm as we make it, which means we’re the ones [that must] stop it,” said a Potsdam researcher not involved in the project.   https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/03/climate-tipping-points-could-topple-like-dominoes-warn-scientists

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