From ChartR: There might soon be a vitamin C-shaped hole in many Americans’ breakfasts: orange juice prices are hitting all-time highs, as a series of poor harvests strain the existing supply of frozen juice futures.
Indeed, while the price of OJ has climbed at an alarming rate in recent years due to reduced production yields, this week saw frozen concentrated orange juice futures ...reach a record price of $4.87 per pound. That’s roughly 5x where they were trading in 2020.
These juiced-up figures have arisen from a blend of bad weather and disease that’s long plagued the world's orange groves...And Florida, world-renowned for its oranges, won’t be able to pick up the slack. The Sunshine State has seen output decline steadily for more than 2 decades, thanks to citrus greening, hurricanes, falling yields, and a booming housing market that’s turned citrus farms into premium real estate.
The world has enough FF projects planned to meet global energy demand forecasts to 2050 & govts should stop issuing new oil, gas & coal licenses, acc to a lg. study aimed at pol leaders.
Are electric cars better for the environment than fuel-powered cars? Here's the verdict - ABC News
(At least for the Australian power market)
I’d also like to see these types of charts include battery replacement. And this doesn’t address the increasing issue of carbon use due to city structure caused by the reliance on cars as opposed to building and zoning for local & mass transit. #EVs#Electrification#ClimateCrisis https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-27/comparing-electric-cars-and-petrol-cars/103746132
Oof. An extra 0.2W/m^2 doesn't sound like a lot if you don't know what these numbers look like, but if you consider that the total amount of energy hitting the top of the atmosphere from the sun is only about 1,360W/m^2, just this heat source is equivalent to about an extra seventieth of a percent of the total solar input being retained.
Most of the original input doesn't reach the ground anyway. If you take it as a percentage of the amount that reaches the ground (342W/m^2) it's about a seventeenth of one percent.
Actually, the last John Oliver about Corn is quite good - not just for farmers, gardeners and climate activists. He explains how subsidy policies in the US have favoured monoculture and are actively destroying life on this planet. He explains how nitrates used as fertilizers pollute fresh and ground water sources. All of this is neither new, nor exclusive to the US. Quite similar here in Germany. Agriculture policies have a massive impact on the #ClimateCrisis.
From the law of the minimum to soil health By Gunnar Rundgren, originally published by Garden Earth May 29, 2024
"...Emergent properties are characteristics of systems that the individual parts of a system do not possess. It is thus not possible to study the individual components and understand how a system functions. The system can be a living creature such as a human, an organ (the brain) an ecosystem or life itself. The soil has a number of emergent properties which can’t be reduced to simple components, the soil is alive. It is no coincidence that one of the canonical books of the organic movement had the title The Living Soil (by Eve Balfour).
...We still don’t know more than a fraction of what is going on.
...As Grandy et al phrase it: “Plants are not just passive players in the N cycle but actively shape intricate three-way interactions with microbes & minerals..."
How extreme weather will affect the insurance and energy sectors - By Matthew Wright, Matthew Priestly, originally published by The Conversation May 29, 2024
"...Insurance companies evaluating risks must account for a combination of the most extreme weather systems, and those affecting built-up, developed areas. The most risk-prone areas are quantified by examining historical events and assessing other possible scenarios that are generated by models. Risk experts also consider what impact historical events would have today. Increases in risk may be due to increases in population, density of the built environment, or GDP. For example, Hurricane Katrina’s impact would be $40 billion higher if it occurred today..."
As voters across India cast their ballots in the general election on issues ranging from the cost of living to jobs and religion, the residents of a tiny, ecologically sensitive island have only one concern: Survival. As voters across India cast their ballots in the general election on issues ranging from the cost of living to...
How working for place-based solutions can change the world By Patrick Mazza, originally published by The Raven May 28, 2024
"...We must anticipate & prepare for extremes while also doing all we can to mitigate them and reduce their intensity. The more stressed systems become, the more difficult it will be for them to respond to stress. It’s a vicious cycle, the kind of feedback loop that leads to collapse. That is why we must build strong and resilient communities in our places, in our cities, towns, rural areas and bioregions. If systems break down at larger levels, we will have to fall back on our own places..."
I have mentioned many times that we will need to be prepared to take in our friends & family who will be displaced here in the US by disasters and climate collapse. The govt is not going to help. Our neighborhoods and congregations will be the basis of our sustainability.
"New portable solar power plants make it easier than ever to go off-grid. An entire plant of solar panels can be folded into a single shipping container.The power plant is easily deployed – and folded up again when it needs to move on."
@Snoro
This makes excellent sense to me. If we collectively are to hold off the existential calamity of #ClimateCrisis, a good portion of our consumerist economy will take a huge hit — even as some is replaced by more sensible options. Wholesale tourism would be at the top of my list of sacrifices to the gods, even as I too have indulged in unnecessary air travel in the past.
Percent area of the Arctic (land and sea north of 60ºN) with the annual average temperature higher than the 1951-80 baseline normal. Since 2015 effectively all of the Arctic warmer than the baseline. In a stable climate this would bounce around 50 percent with some multi-year consistency with more or less area being above/below normal. #Arctic#Climate#ClimateCrisis H/T @Climatologist49
Rightwing NZ government accused of ‘war on nature’ as it takes axe to climate policies (www.theguardian.com)
Government of Christopher Luxon has made sweeping cuts to climate projects in its first budget, with no new significant environmental investments
For Ghoramara islanders, India election is about climate change and survival (www.reuters.com)
As voters across India cast their ballots in the general election on issues ranging from the cost of living to jobs and religion, the residents of a tiny, ecologically sensitive island have only one concern: Survival. As voters across India cast their ballots in the general election on issues ranging from the cost of living to...