[GWSG] Action support; is a trend?; abrupt change; aquifers & soil; biochar enterprise; low-carbon UK homes

[Tilley, Al]

1. Overwhelming majorities in seven countries support climate action. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-overwhelming-international-action-environment-message-testing.html

2. A general shift on climate seems to be in progress among the world’s peoples. We could be experiencing a social tipping point, analogous to the shift in attitudes toward slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries. We may be moving toward a general allegiance to climate-friendly behavior. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-social-slouching-climate-salvation.html

3. Two six-minute videos pose the possibility of abrupt climate change, perhaps in connection with a slow-down or cessation of the AMOC, the topic of the accompanying New York Times story. https://climatecrocks.com/2021/03/03/new-evidence-points-to-possible-north-atlantic-changes-or-does-it/

4. Aquifers are depleting and the soil which bears them subsiding around the world. https://www.wired.com/story/the-ongoing-collapse-of-the-worlds-aquifers/

5. Australian startup Rainbow Bee Eater manufactures biochar production equipment which turns agricultural waste into biochar to be used with compost to permanently increase soil fertility and sequester carbon for thousands of years. Waste providers are paid in biochar to  sell. The plant is powered by the biogas produced by the process, which is markedly carbon negative. Microsoft is using it for carbon credits. At current carbon prices the equipment pays for itself in five years, and the C price is rising. https://reneweconomy.com.au/how-an-australian-biochar-start-up-inspired-microsofts-negative-carbon-plan/

6. As many as 30,000 low-carbon homes are under development in England, where the market for them is in advance of government regulation. Not only the construction but the surroundings of the homes and the activities they support are designed to be ecologically benign. The homes featured in the article are mostly council homes—designed for low incomes.   https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/mar/06/eco-homes-become-hot-property-in-uks-zero-carbon-paradigm-shift

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