Stories & Items Relating to Climate Change news world news

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News about Climate Change and Global warming.  

With Climate Change our way of growing our food must change. The climate has changed and drought, heatwaves, storms have intensified and we can no longer rely on conventional agriculture. However, there is a solution to the problem and it is called Hydroponics where we can grow crops 365 days a year irrespective of weather or season. An additional benefit is we don’t have to use pesticides and you can eat the crops without needing to wash them.

At the moment commercial growers are using this technique around the world and the market is predicted to be $12 billion by 2025.

The beauty of this system is you can grow anywhere from Arctic to Desert as 95% of the water used can be recycled.

The method of growing is straight forward and you can introduce your family and children to it with a kitchen counter unit from IKEA for around $32. You can grow virtually any kind of plant but a kitchen counter unit could be used for fresh cooking herbs. The growing speed is also improved and you can grow a full size fresh lettuce in 30 days!

It is good to introduce children to the idea and your very own produce gives great satisfaction! This is one of the 1001 ways to beat Climate Change.

I am of the firm belief that all politicians and those who govern need to attend a basic course in human psychology.

Ruling by diktat has limited success. We saw this recently in France where President Macron no doubt with good intent raised fuel tax in an effort to make an impact on France’s carbon footprint. It is my experience in running this website the general public are neither well informed or understand the consequences to themselves or families of Climate Change/Global warming. Unless you have lived in an area where natural disasters have destroyed your home or family there is a “Who Cares” attitude. However as food prices start to escalate and shortages occur the public will turn on the politicians saying that they (the politicians) were responsible.

I honestly believe that more can be achieved by using “the Carrot” in these circumstances. The following recent article from CNN states that we may no longer be able to meet our Paris Accord’s targets due to deforestation. This is also made worse by recent wildfires which have destroyed vast amounts of forest around the world turning them from carbon sinks into carbon emitters as the dead trees decay.

In order to turn this around I think countries should be rewarded for re-forestation and the preservation of existing forests either through trade tariffs or some other economic incentive. This should be extended and in some places it is, to the general public. Tax rebate if you use public transport instead of your own vehicle (done via your Oyster card for example)! All of this is achievable it is the will that is missing.

The following report is from CNN:-

Rob Picheta CNN Feb 18 2019

Leaders urged to do better on climate change 04:12

(CNN)International targets to cut emissions and limit climate change will be missed due to rises in deforestation and delays in changing how humans use land, a new study warns.

Nearly 100 countries pledged to make their use of land less damaging to the climate, mainly by limiting deforestation rates and boosting forest restocking, when they signed the Paris Agreement in 2015.

But those commitments were unrealistic and need to be stepped up dramatically, according to researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the University of Edinburgh, who pointed to inaction by richer countries and a rise in deforestation in several countries since the treaty was signed.

The agreement committed almost 200 countries to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- and below 1.5 degrees if possible.

"In most cases, little progress has been made, [and] often, the situation has actually worsened in the last three years," said Calum Brown, lead author of the study, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

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"Many of the plans for mitigation in the land system were unrealistic in the first place and now threaten to make the Paris target itself unachievable," added Brown, a researcher at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Brazil increased deforestation by 29% between 2015 and 2016 despite reductions in the decade before the Paris Agreement was signed, the study says, essentially making the country's emission promises impossible to meet.

Palm oil cultivation in Indonesia and Peru has also scuppered deforestation efforts and led to increased emissions rates, it says.

"The commitments were never sufficient, which is bad enough, but also the commitments that have been made are not realistic given the political support they have in general," said co-author Peter Alexander, a lecturer in global food security at the University of Edinburgh

"Ongoing destruction of tropical forests in Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia is particularly concerning, because these forests store huge quantities of carbon, as well as containing high levels of biodiversity," added co-author Mark Rounsevell, a professor of land use change at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

"Attempts to protect these forests have had limited success, and laws against felling have recently been rolled back," he said.

The study is one of many in recent months to warn that countries are falling woefully short of achieving the targets of the Paris treaty.

The agreement, once seen as a landmark eleventh-hour attempt at stemming the catastrophic impact of climate change, has also been denounced by a number of leaders elected since it was signed, including US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

"Richer countries have not been leading the way, either in reducing their own emissions or in reducing the pressure on developing nations," Alexander said. 

"We need to find rapid but realistic ways of changing human land use if we are to meet our climate change targets."

This is a shameful state of affairs that stems from gross ignorance of what Climate Change means and selfishness and greed affecting the poor who suffer now and denying future generations the earth we inherited.

Finally as administrators we need to better understand the people we administrate and how to motivate them when it comes to Climate Change.

After last winter’s artic blast here in the UK (the Beast from the East) I predicted another event for this year and I was wrong. I should have realised that instability is the name of the game with Climate Change. The winter storms that have afflicted North America are all part of it. Normally the Polar Vortex which contains the polar air to the polar regions has weakened as the Jet Stream has become more erratic, a bit like the wobble on a spinning top as it slows down. Why is it slowing down? In simple terms because the earth is heating up and affecting the oceanic currents. Planet earth is an integrated system. Affecting one thing and there is a knock-on to another part of the planet. Nature like the rest of the universe likes harmony and balance.

Returning to the USA 73% of the population believe in the reality of Climate Change leave the dinosaurs to throw up their hands in horror at the mention of “Green New Deal”.

We have left the 20th century behind and we are moving into the bright new world of the 21st century with new ideas and new technology and new approaches to the way we live.

Climate Change has forced this upon to some extent but we should now pick up the baton and run with it.

Fossil fuels are the thing of the past like stone age man lighting his campfire to cook his food. We have all the fuel we would ever need in the oceans which cover 4/5ths of the planet. Clean fuel that causes zero pollution. Even the Arab oil producing countries are looking around  for a replacement when their product is no longer in demand.

The USA was always up front with new ideas and inventions and marketing them. Henry Ford for one made the automobile available to the average working man.

We should not be looking at reviving old industries that are past their sell buy date but creating new 21st century ones. And yes, it may take a “New Deal” action to kick start it but we have to move out of the 20th century and into the 21st with our administration and politics!

One of the big issues with renewables Wind, Solar etc is the storage of energy and in that I see a great future for marriage of renewables to Hydrogen. Surplus electricity can be used for producing Hydrogen gas from water and the gas stored as a liquid or in tanks for use when there is no wind or at night when there is no sun. South Korea has already Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power Station in operation producing zero emissions.

Manufacture and construction of these systems will lead to new employment opportunities.