If I had a million wishes, they would all be for everybody to work against climate change / global warming — and for the work to be enough to repair the damage. But I don’t have a million wishes, and this is one of the weeks I don’t really hold out much hope. Some weeks are like that.
For instance, The Guardian reports on a study predicting problems for the EU from losing imports, but it applies to the USA, as well:
The study, published in Nature Communications, concluded: “In the near future, supplies of certain crops to the EU could be disrupted due to increased drought in other parts of the world. Coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, oil palm, and soybean are the most climate-vulnerable imported products.”
Climate crisis to hit Europe’s coffee and chocolate supplies — The Guardian
Soybeans, we got, but the rest, not so much.
On the other hand, Creamer Media’s Engineering News reports that Wind could produce affordable green hydrogen by 2030, Siemens Gamesa says
Using onshore wind turbines to power electrolysers that extract hydrogen from water could become as cheap as making it using fossil fuels by 2030, and offshore wind could get there by 2035, Siemens Gamesa said….. Siemens Gamesa, which dominates the global market for offshore wind turbines, said it is speeding up work on a prototype system to produce hydrogen powered by offshore wind in the next five years.
Also, the Smithsonian Magazine reports: To Combat Climate Change, Researchers Want to Pull Carbon Dioxide From the Ocean and Turn It Into Rock
A new method for combatting climate change feels like a bit of modern-day alchemy: scientists have figured out how to take carbon dioxide out of the ocean and turn it into harmless rock. … Oceans and other large bodies of water can hold more than 150 times more carbon dioxide than the air. Sant and his colleagues’ idea is that if you can remove carbon from the ocean, the water will absorb more from the atmosphere to maintain a state of equilibrium. Now, they’re proposing an innovative way of getting carbon out of the ocean—by turning it into rock. … As well as pulling carbon out of seawater, the chemical reaction has a useful byproduct: hydrogen gas. By producing and selling the hydrogen, a plant could help offset its costs. … For the better half of a decade, Sant’s research has focused on streamlining a process of combining carbon dioxide from factory flue gas streams with calcium hydroxide to form concrete. “Because [my carbon dioxide sequestration method] effectively produces carbon neutral limestone, now you’ve got the ability to produce carbon neutral cement, and use the limestone solids for construction,” says Sant.
Ally Hirschlag, Hakai Magazine
Downside: Much MUCH more limestone than the construction industry can use. Really? Really? Because There’s a lot of use for limestone, from field walls to houses to gravel to rock gardens to …. Well, I don’t know what all.
Still, I’m having one of those weeks, so other than geeking out over the science, I’m not cheered. Sorry.
A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: Someone fails to be cheered.
MA
Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
June 18, 2021 at 4:03pmGlad you enjoy this kind of research. I haven’t the bandwidth right now, and have no control.
Last night we had a several-hour power loss. Turns out ours was NOT from the predicted need for rolling blackouts – some other problem which affected 2500 people? homes? in Davis.
We sat and talked a bit by the light of several LED devices, wondering what we would do (we live on the fourth floor) if it continued, and worried about the more fragile residents in our higher levels of care.
We knew that, even if we made it downstairs, I would probably not make it back up. Sobering. So spoiled I am that I take the services for granted, and then, if not, as someone else’s problem right now.
I worry about my kids – anyone with kids does – and the priorities of the politicians. Have nothing that can help except that they apply terraforming ideas to Earth, not Mars, as we definitely could use some help.
Marian Allen
June 19, 2021 at 11:06amTerraforming Earth — Great idea!
Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
June 19, 2021 at 5:24pmFrankly, Mars is a lovely idea – but the people who go will have problems and we won’t be able to help them, and it will cost so much money we could have saved our entire planet.
All we need is for people who are interested to take up the idea of getting the water from the Pacific desalinated with solar power – and delivered to California.
The climate is good for growing – but water is tight.
Marian Allen
June 20, 2021 at 11:06amI know it is. One of our daughters volunteered at Mono Lake for two or three years, and the cities diverted so much water from the lake it changed the water’s ecosystem.
acflory
June 19, 2021 at 5:36amI like learning about new tech that promises to solve old problems. Sadly much of it goes nowhere because governments are incapable of thinking outside the four or eight year political cycle. Not sure I want to be around when the shyte finally hits the fan. Unfortunately the Offspring will. Humans are such lemmings. 🙁
Marian Allen
June 19, 2021 at 11:10amWriter John Gardner called that kind of short-sightedness “counting the nose hairs on an elephant”, and that doing that was all well and good unless the elephant was sitting on the baby.
acflory
June 20, 2021 at 4:15amlmao – oh my god…I love that. My mind is conjuring all sorts of 2D images [no babies were hurt in my imagination]. 😀
Marian Allen
June 20, 2021 at 11:08amI know, right? 😀
acflory
June 20, 2021 at 6:29pmlol – absolutely.