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Posted by: kwhilden | October 6, 2009
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Posted in Uncategorized
Posted by: kwhilden | July 1, 2009
Warming permafrost == bad news
My MS in Geology specialized in permafrost dynamics, so I am particularly interested in a new paper on the total carbon stored in Northern Hemisphere permafrost. Unfortunately, the news is bad, because it shows that the IPCC has underestimated the carbon pool by an order of magnitude. Why is this bad? Beacuse the Arctic is melting rapidly, and therefore this carbon will be released to the atmosphere in a positive warming feedback. According to the authors of the paper, this could result in an additional 80 ppm CO2 emissions by 2100, which would lead to further melting and further CO2 release. This threatens to overwhelm any potential human reductions in CO2, and the total potential CO2 release is many times the historical total of human CO2 emissions.
The key message in all of this that we must reduce human CO2 emissions much faster than currently planned, or else natural amplifying feedback mechanisms threaten to create a catastrophic runaway global warming.
The key question is how can we use this fact to motivate faster change in human behavior to reduce emissions?
The full paper is available here. Reuters also covers this story here.
Posted in natural CO2 feedbacks
Posted by: kwhilden | June 16, 2009
Community gardens in response to the wheat rust threat
Read this article on the threat of the UG99 strain of the wheat rust fungus. Key point: 80% of the world’s wheat supply could be wiped out over the next decade, and it will take that long at least to develop resistant strains of wheat.
The outbreak is in Africa now, and moving into Asia, where tensions and populations are high, but fortunately the reliance on wheat is low (about 20% of food is based on wheat throughout Asia).
But this fungus could easily break out in the USA, where reliance on wheat is very high. This serves to highlight the importance of agricultural diversity, so that our food supply won’t be wiped out suddenly. It makes you think about the benefits of locally grown food as well. If this rust does make the jump to North America, I would sure want to be an expert at locally grown food and permaculture.
Posted in Uncategorized
