[GWSG] Climate blues; sinking kelp; Running Tide; Manchin's assignment; Manchin's constituents; 4 EV myths

[Tilley, Al]

1. A survey by the American Psychiatric Association found that a majority of Americans are worried about the effect of the climate crisis on their mental health. Coping strategies include talking about your concerns with others, reconnecting with the unbuilt world, and taking action against the crisis. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-mental-health-casualty-global.html

2. Kelp permaculture promises to sequester gigatons of carbon for thousands of years in deep waters. Several companies are establishing procedures for carrying that out at a significant scale. Dangers range from the prospect that fossil fuel companies will seize on the technology as an excuse to continue business as usual (when we really need to cease emissions and use kelp to draw down the carbon we have already emitted) to the danger that depositing so much biomass on the ocean floor may have unanticipated and undesirable effects. https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/19/1035889/kelp-carbon-removal-seaweed-sinking-climate-change/

3. MIT works hard to find possible shadows in a most promising technology.  NPR profiles Running Tide Technologies, one of the new firms piloting kelp permaculture for carbon sequestration. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/01/970670565/run-the-oil-industry-in-reverse-fighting-climate-change-by-farming-kelp
For an extended overview of kelp permaculture, Tim Flannery’s Sunlight and Seaweed (2017) remains an inspiring read. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35111612-sunlight-and-seaweed

4. Senator Joe Manchin has been tasked with leading development of the climate legislation in the larger infrastructure bill. Global action may hinge on what we do in the bill, and the future of the world in any benign form may well depend on the global actions we take. As Chair of the Senate energy panel, and as a swing vote, Joe Manchin has a near-lock on US action anyway. Now he has full responsibility for what we undertake. It is a singularly dramatic moment. The future has been put in the hands of a man who by personal profit and political history is opposed to our most vital interests. Will he now, in full sight and in broad daylight, carry through on that momentum toward the darkness he has had his part in evoking, or will he turn and lead us to a world we would want to inhabit? Coral Davenport’s story reports from his associates’ accounts of his state of mind only a thin veil of rhetoric over delaying tactics. As Manchin confronts the reaction to these among colleagues, the public, and the international community, they may change. If not, we shall all suffer the consequences.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/19/climate/manchin-climate-biden.html

5. Paul Krugman observes that if Manchin fails to act on the climate it will not be because he represents the interests of workers in a coal state. That ended for West Virginia in the eighties. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/opinion/joe-manchin-coal-climate-biden.html?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_content=20210921&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20Daily

6. The journal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers debunks four cynical myths about electric vehicles. Thanks to Tom Larson for the story. https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/manufacturing-blog-4-myths-surrounding-the-electric-car

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