[GWSG] Map of hazards; Hansen on heat; G7 approves new methane; Geoengineering zoom; Hansen in favor; community Amazon project

[Tilley, Al]

1. The EPA is providing an interactive map of hazardous waste sites along the US coastline. That should work well with the thorough vulnerability study your local government should have conducted, and if not should conduct, to identify the greatest risks locally and to schedule the cleanup before they submerge. https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-launches-interactive-map-sea-level-rise-around-hazardous-waste-sites-along-us

2. James Hansen has released a pre-peer review copy of his team’s paper “Global Warming in the Pipeline.” It has been revised from last year’s draft to include a closer focus on the past 66 million years. The Abstract indicates that current accumulated emissions will eventually result in 10C of warming without further emissions. In the past, 400 ppm of CO2 has resulted in an almost ice-free planet. (We are currently at 423 ppm.) We may expect the pace of warming to be at least .27C per decade. We should get even busier on the problem.  https://mailchi.mp/caa/global-warming-in-the-pipeline-2y56b01d8q?e=6b45dc359d

3. The G7 nations are again approving increasing methane emissions by increasing investments in commercial methane. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/g7-brings-gas-investments-back-temporary-solution-dismay-climate-activists-2023-05-20/

4. On May 25 Columbia U is hosting an online discussion, Geoengineering: A short-term mitigation for climate change? https://www.climate.columbia.edu/events/geoengineering-short-term-mitigation-climate-change

5. James Hansen has recently joined over 60 scientists in a letter urging that taking “a rapid, rigorous scientific assessment” of geoengineering is warranted by the climate emergency. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/01/sun-rays-cool-overheating-earth-james-hansen-scientists-letter
We’re due for a two-degree jump in global temperatures which will last for a few years as we cease burning fossil fuels and emitting particulates (which partially shield us from the sun). Perhaps a geoengineering project to put particulates temporarily aloft to shield us when we have ceased using the fossil stuff and while we draw carbon out of the atmosphere (perhaps with 1800 of UCLA’s Sea Change machines) could erase, or at least weaken, the two-degree bump.  While it is true the project may have unforeseen consequences, those foreseen if we do not act seem fearsome enough to warrant taking a chance on geoengineering.

6. In a program to restore the forest along the Jurua River in the Amazon, local people are being enlisted along with scientists to devise strategies. If it works, it might provide an attractive alternative for other rewilding and restoration projects.  https://phys.org/news/2023-05-amazon-brazilian-ecologists-approach-deforestation.html

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