[GWSG] Estimating loss; CT climate ed; 46.9% renewable; heat shootings; Amazon report; COP 15 agreement; details

[Tilley, Al]

1. Extinction projection should include knock-on effects. When a prey species goes extinct, its predator, if insufficiently flexible, may also go extinct. The disappearance of a pollinator may doom the pollinated. The destinies of symbionts are entangled. Such linkages within ecosystems can amplify biodiversity loss by 184% over the next 75 years, according to a new calculation which includes secondary effects. “Without major changes in human society, we stand to lose much of what sustains life on our planet.” We must leave fossil fuels in the ground, draw down and sequester the carbon our use of them has added to our air and water, and choose to live sustainably. That means a plant-based diet, among other choices.  https://phys.org/news/2022-12-extinction-cascades-climate-world-biodiversity.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter

2. Students in Connecticut will be aware of item 2, because that state is one of 20 to have adopted the Next Generation Science Standards, which specify climate science content by grade level. High school students must be able to “use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity.” CT has taken the further step of mandating teaching of the standards, moving them out of the reach of ignorance and propaganda among school boards and the state legislature. The state also requires that students learn solutions to the climate crisis. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/dec/17/climate-change-studies-connecticut

3. Last year Germany produced 46.9% of its power renewably, up 4.9% from 2021. https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/renewables-provide-469-power-used-germany-2022-2022-12-16/

4. “Above average temperatures at any time of year increased the risk of shootings” in the US. 8,000 shootings, 6.85% of the total, are attributable to unseasonal temperatures in the US in the past year. Other studies have concluded that higher temperatures are likely “to increase deaths from road crashes, violence, suicides, and drownings.”  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/16/almost-8000-us-shootings-attributed-to-unseasonable-heat-study

5. A journalist reflects on a year in the Amazon as he witnessed the war being waged on the forest. The Amazon is not just suffering the effects of our addiction to gas, coal, and oil, it is also the target of organized violence, much of it to sustain and increase its herd of 90 million cows. The election of Brazil’s new president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva opens more widely the prospect of reversing the loss of the forest, assuming that the tipping point has not been crossed, as some believe, so that reversal is still practically possible.   https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/16/year-in-the-life-of-the-amazon-deforestation-climate-disaster-mass-extermination

6. An agreement to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 has been passed by nearly 200 nations at COP 15. China’s president led the agreement despite objections by some African states. The US and the Vatican did not sign. “The agreement, if implemented, could signal major changes to farming, business supply chains and the role of Indigenous communities in conservation.
“The deal was negotiated over two weeks and includes targets to protect 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade, reform $500bn (£410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies, and restore 30% of the planet’s degraded terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine ecosystems.
“Governments also agreed urgent actions to halt human-caused extinctions of species known to be under threat and to promote their recovery.” The non-binding agreement requires nations to report their progress toward its goals, much like the Paris climate agreement. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/19/cop15-historic-deal-signed-to-halt-biodiversity-loss-by-2030-aoe

7. More detail on the main points of the COP 15 agreement. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/19/cop15-key-points-of-nature-deal-at-a-glance-aoe

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