-
The Doomsday Glacier – the Largest in West Antarctica
Earth and Leaf Editorial – The Doomsday Glacier This is serious for lots of reasons. Antarctica’s fragile environment is being destroyed. Water and ice are the buffers that maintain a stable and equitable climate on our shared world. It takes a great deal of heat to melt this much ice. The latent heat of fusion uses huge amounts of energy to turn ice at 0 degrees C into water at 0 degrees C and vice versa. Thwaites Glacier is the largest glacier in West Antarctica, pictured here by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission in 2019. (Image credit: Photo: ©ESA; Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA) The Doomsday…
-
Burying Dead Trees after a Wildfire
Earth and Leaf Editorial – Burying Dead Trees The science actually indicates, leave them alone. Cutting them down and burying dead trees is unnecessary, will disturb the soil releasing CO2. Cutting then down and burning them is idiocy. Charred trees still standing after a wildfire in Glacier National Park, Montana – Gorski/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Will burying dead trees after a wildfire keep their carbon locked up? Partially burnt trees still standing after a wildfire are typically felled and burned, but a US start-up claims burying them instead will trap the carbon underground for centuries. In 2021, a smouldering underground coal seam ignited the tinder-dry grass and brush in Poverty Flats, Montana,…
-
Drax Should Have No Place in UK Climate Plan
Once again I have to talk about Drax. This company, Drax, burns old growth forest felled in Canada and imported to the UK. This is emphatically not green energy, nor is it renewable energy. They've just built a ship to facilitate this vile trade. Their ridiculous subsidies must stop. I need say no more.
-
Deforestation Accounts for Major Amazon Rainfall Decline
Earth and Leaf Editorial – Study finds deforestation accounts for major Amazon rainfall decline Amazon rainfall decline can be stopped. We must support the Amazonian countries so they can end mining, soya production for livestock feed and end beef ranching. Logging activity in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, with trees already tagged and waiting for transportation. Image courtesy of Vicente Sampaio/Imaflora. Excerpt Amazon Rainfall Decline A study looking at land and atmosphere interactions in the Amazon Basin across four decades found that 52-72% of the rainfall decline in the southern Amazon is due to large-scale deforestation. Between 1980 and 2019, annual precipitation in the southern Amazon declined by 8-11%,…
-
Earth Being Pushed Beyond it’s Limits
Is Earth being pushed beyond it's limits? WE need a thorough understanding of climate science to understand what is going on.
-
Aquatic Deoxygenation – Earth’s 10th Tipping Point
Earth and Leaf Editorial – Earth’s Disastrous 10th Tipping Point Has Been Identified Aquatic Deoxygenation William Grammenos//Getty Images Extract Crossing Planetary Boundaries (PB)—a concept that defines nine potential ecological “tipping points”—could spell doom for ecosystems and humanity’s future on the planet. Of these PBs, humans have already crossed six of the nine thresholds. Now, scientists are arguing that there’s potentially a tenth boundary that’s gone unrecognized, which concerns worldwide aquatic deoxygenation in lakes, reservoirs, oceans, and other bodies of water. “Climate change” is a scary, catch-all term that summarizes all the anthropogenic degradation humans are inflicting on the planet. In reality, climate change is only one of the many…
-
Costa Rica’s Cloud Forests
Earth and Leaf Editorial – Cloud Forests and Climate Change We don’t know whether Costa Rica’s cloud forests can cope with climate change. We need to try very hard not to find out. They are incredibly important biodiverse entities. Lets work hard and lets hope … The cloud forests in Costa Rica are under growing threat from climate change. AFP Extract Shrouded in mist, dripping with water and boasting an extraordinary richness of plant and animal life, the cloud forests of Monteverde in north-western Costa Rica offer a glimpse into what seems like another world. With vines curling down from the trees, and orchids and ferns in abundance, it is…
-
First Climate Tipping Point Reached
First Climate Tipping Point Reached – A Catastrophe for Coral Reefs Earth and Leaf Editorial This is the inevitable news that the first climate tipping point reached. It has come sooner than I perhaps hoped. We now have to change our behaviour. Unless global heating is reduced to 1.2C ‘as fast as possible’, warm water coral reefs will not remain ‘at any meaningful scale’, a report by 160 scientists from 23 countries warns. This means we must cool the planet starting now which is a phenomenal task. Links to Other Relevant Stories Bottom Trawling Destroys the Seabed 1.5 Degrees Climate Target is Dead 3 Coral reefs face long-term decline now…
-
Fig trees may benefit climate by turning carbon dioxide into stone
Some fig trees can convert surprisingly large amounts of carbon dioxide into stone, ensuring that the carbon remains in the soil long after the tree has died. This means that fig trees planted for forestry or their fruit could offer additional climate benefits through this carbon-sequestration process. All trees take up CO2 from the air, and most of that carbon typically ends up as structural molecules used to build the plant, such as cellulose. Some trees, however, convert CO2 into a crystal compound called calcium oxalate, which bacteria in the tree and the soil can then convert to calcium carbonate, the main component of stones like limestone and chalk. Carbon…
-
Carbon Brief
Earth and Leaf Editorial – Glossary: Carbon Brief’s guide to 25 ‘climate-friendly’ farming methods Carbon Brief tell us that global food systems are responsible for around one third of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions each year. Does that include deforestation, transport of soya? If not then its much higher still. Lets find out. The answer? It does not include deforestation. Glossary: Carbon Brief’s guide to 25 ‘climate-friendly’ farming methods Extract Global food systems are responsible for around one third of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions each year. Agriculture is also, by far, the biggest driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss. Producing less meat, using less synthetic fertiliser, stopping food waste and…
-
Worlds Hottest Year
TBC
-
The Best Climate Resolution This Year
Do nothing, that is the best climate resolution this year. Everything else we (you) do seems to make no difference. That must not stop us trying. I'd ask one small thing. Show your friends this website, it might just help.
-
Arctic tundra is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs, US agency says
“If the Arctic Tundra is really emitting more carbon than it absorbs then we are in some peril. We simply have to dramatically reduce CO2 and methane production and do this very quickly. Even if you are a global warming sceptic you cannot take the risk.” {Earth and Leaf Editorial} Arctic tundra is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs Arctic tundra is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs, US agency says The Arctic tundra is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by frequent wildfires that are turning it into a net source of carbon dioxide emissions after millennia of acting as a carbon sink, the US National…
-
How do we know that the climate crisis is to blame for extreme weather?
{Earth and Leaf Editorial – climate crisis is to blame for extreme weather} {extract below} How do we know that the climate crisis is to blame for extreme weather? It is a crucial question: is the climate crisis to blame for the extreme weather disasters taking lives and destroying homes around the world. But it has not been an easy one to answer. How much is due to global heating, how much is just the severe weather that has always happened? The good news is that the scientific techniques used to untangle that question – called climate attribution – are now well established. The bad news is what they reveal:…
-
World’s 1.5C climate target deader than a doornail experts say
{Earth and Leaf Editorial – World’s 1.5C climate target deader than a doornail experts say. We need radical action. If this change accelerates earth will be uninhabitable in our childrens lifetime} {extract below} World’s 1.5C climate target deader than a doornail experts say The internationally agreed goal to keep the world’s temperature rise below 1.5C is now “deader than a doornail”, with 2024 almost certain to be the first individual year above this threshold, climate scientists have gloomily concluded – even as world leaders gather for climate talks on how to remain within this boundary. Three of the five leading research groups monitoring global temperatures consider 2024 on track to…
-
Rising sea temperatures around the UK and the potential threat to wild fish
{Earth and Leaf Editorial – Rising sea temperatures around the UK and the potential threat to wild fish} {extract below} Rising sea temperatures Millions across the UK have been enjoying a sweltering start to the summer, but unusually high temperatures at sea could spell trouble for marine and freshwater wildlife. The Met Office confirmed that global sea surface temperatures for April and May smashed previous records, at their highest since monitoring began in 1850. An ‘unprecedented’ marine heatwave in UK waters The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has classified the abnormally high sea temperatures in UK waters as a ‘category 4’ heatwave. Cat 4 marine heatwaves are described as…
-
Drax will keep raising carbon emission levels until 2050s
{Drax will keep raising carbon emission levels until 2050s and this is just from the plant at Drax. The other emissions caused by this ludicrous business are not counted. Earth and Leaf Editorial} {extract below} Raising Carbon Emission Levels Drax will keep raising carbon emission levels until the 2050s despite using carbon capture technology, according to scientific research. The large power plant in North Yorkshire is a significant generator of electricity for the UK but has faced repeated criticism of its business model of burning wood pellets sourced from forests in the US and Canada. The new study found that the intensive forest management needed to source 7m tonnes…
-
Indonesia biomass zone for Japan and South Korea energy razes rainforest in Sulawesi
{Earth and Leaf Editorial – Indonesia biomass zone for Japan and S. Korea energy razes rainforest in Sulawesi – As well as fossil fuel use this must be stopped too and must happen now} {extract below} Indonesia biomass zone for Japan and S. Korea energy razes rainforest in Sulawesi OHUWATO, Indonesia — Heavy trucks roll toward a semiremote coastline here on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island before idling alongside a waiting barge, which will later make a vast shipment of wood pellets to Japan and South Korea. The shipping terminal was built by PT Biomasa Jaya Abadi (BJA), an Indonesian firm with ambitions to become a global leader in the trade…
-
Industrial wastelands to wildlife oases: The 5 nature wins that have actually worked
{The 5 nature wins that have actually worked – They are: 1. Protect our oceans 2. Fight invasive species 3. Restore degraded wetlands 4. Save keystone species 5. Bring forests back to life Maybe each country should be given just one task, for example Russia to restore the Caspian Sea because it controls the sources of its water, Brazil to end all deforestation and start rehabilitation – Earth and Leaf Editorial} {extract below} Industrial wastelands to wildlife oases: The 5 nature wins that have actually worked World leaders are gathering in Cali, Colombia, to agree ways to save species from extinction and restore nature. Here are five powerful solutions to…
-
The global methane bomb is starting to detonate
{The Global Methane Bomb – if this were to happen our world will become uninhabitable very quickly indeed} {extract below} The global methane bomb is starting to detonate With each passing year, our own relatively puny emissions are pushing these ancient cycles further out of balance. If they turn against us, the effects could be devastating. For all the damage that humanity is causing through our production of greenhouse gases, the numbers involved can seem impossibly slight. Every year we release about 9.6 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere as CO2, or carbon dioxide – but there’s about 58 trillion tons stored away in organic and…
