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TUESDAYS — YOUR INBOX — ASSUREDLY
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CURATED ECOLOGICAL NEWS
Transition Towns — energy descent and collective democracy ascent
“The factor I argue is more important than all else is the probable imminent collapse of the global financial system. Global debt has tripled over the past three decades, and is now generally regarded as unpayable. If everyone becomes as rich as Australians are now (with a steady 3% annual growth rate), the world economy would be over 10 times its current size. But the current level is grossly unsustainable.
“Many see these factors as inevitably leading us towards a catastrophic collapse of our current global economic and social systems. These threats cannot be eliminated unless there is a dramatic reduction in production and consumption, and the growth- and profit-driven global economic system is scrapped. And to do this, we need the Transition Towns movement.
“Thriving, highly self-sufficient communities, run by cooperative, conscientious, self-governing citizens living very frugally, should be the vision the Transition Towns movement. Yet this does not seem to be the movement’s central driving motivation. Even some of its members worry that it is only about providing a pleasant escape for just a small few.
“First, the movement is explicitly and deliberately reformist rather than revolutionary. It advocates a society still organised around market forces, profit, growth, and capitalism. Second, the movement does not prioritise achieving sufficiently dramatic reductions in resource throughput, though acknowledged, it is not treated as the central objective.
“Imagine something different: town‑wide and neighbourhood assemblies meeting regularly, deciding what needs to be done, and then organising through committees, rosters, cooperatives, and working bees
“The left has long criticised the Transition Towns movement for its deliberate refusal to be openly political, in its language or, more importantly, in its practice. For many on the left, this is a fatal misstep because they see the central task as confronting and ultimately overcoming capitalism itself.” [click the link for the full article]
Richard Heinberg — energy depletion deferred is still depletion
“This is the final article in a three-part series featuring an interview with Richard Heinberg by Manuel Casal Lodeiro of Instituto Resiliencia.
“Some people are glad to see that the great energy descent is being postponed, thanks mainly to shale/fracking. But the more the extractive plateau is extended, the more abrupt will be the descent, as the scientific data show.
“Sadly, I think the failure of the peak oil movement almost 20 years ago is having a terrible after-effect. Some of our forecasts for declining oil production and economic collapse were premature. But most policymakers and pundits drew the conclusion that it is stupid to think that oil production will ever decline.
“A lesson that could have been avoided if the Peak Oil warnings (let’s say the official ones like the Hirsch Report) had been listened to, even though they were a little too ahead in their timing. It’s much better to be too early than too late. However, being too early is punished by the market.
“The [Oil Depletion] Protocol was already an improbable thing in the first years of the century. But after 20 years of COP failures, with Trumpism and the far-right on the rise, it is more difficult today than then to promote such a deeply moral proposal.
“We can continue making our case, using current events to buttress our arguments. Degrowth advocates already stress a higher quality of life as an alternative goal versus perpetual economic expansion. As of now, we are past the time of warnings and preparations and have arrived at the age of consequences.” [click the link for the full article]
Not tech, regulations, hopium, or efficiency — but frugality
“Hospicing Modernity is a thought-provoking guide to facing global pandemics, climate change, and other modern crises with maturity, humility, and integrity. This book is not easy: it contains no quick-fix plan for a better, brighter tomorrow, and gives no ready-made answers.
“Instead, Vanessa Machado de Oliveira challenges us to interrupt the modern behavior patterns that are killing the planet we’re part of.
“Driven by expansion, colonialism, and resource extraction and propelled by neoliberalism and rabid consumption, our world is profoundly out of balance. We take more than we give; we inoculate ourselves in positive self-regard while continuing to make harmful choices; we wreak irreparable havoc on the ecosystems, habitats, and beings with whom we share our planet.” [click the link for the full article]
Bicycling Month — Seattle leads in transportation cycling
“Bicyclists in tech-friendly Seattle logged more than 3.3 million miles last year. The data is part of the first commute report from Strava, a fitness and social media app, to better support planning of new bikeways and bike sharing programs.
“Seattle placed above all other U.S. cities in the ranking — with 3,339,306 miles, to be exact. Chicago came next, with 2.5 million miles, followed by Minneapolis-St. Paul, with 1.7 million miles.
“Unsurprisingly, the U.S. wasn’t the top country in the report. Seattle’s share of the global total of 550 million miles comes to just half a percent.” [click the link for the full article]
Netherlands — people and cyclists before cars on neighborhood streets
“For as long as humans have been living in cities — and until only recently — streets were the main site where children grew up’, write Melissa Bruntlett and Chris Bruntlett in their book Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives. Unfortunately, city streets in the twentieth century became unsafe spaces when so much prime urban real estate was ceded over to cars.
“The Bruntletts discuss the negative effects of car culture for children, for care-givers, for social cohesion, for social justice, for mental health, for the ability of the elderly to age in place — plus the positive effects in these realms when urban planners carefully and sensibly curb traffic.
“The Bruntletts describe the policies and practices that have transformed cities throughout the Netherlands and have turned the nation into a world leader for active transportation. Visitors to the Netherlands are rightly amazed at the extensive network of dedicated bike lanes which go to every section of every city, as well as through the countryside.
“But the Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality isn’t really about bicycles. It’s about refusing to sacrifice vast amounts of the public realm to the private automobile; instead reserving space for commerce, community, and social connection. The ubiquitous bicycles are simply a by-product of that larger process, a tool to achieve the end goal of what policy makers call an autoluw (or nearly car-free) city.
“Making residential streets safe again for children has involved a complex of modified street design, driver-responsibility laws, and strong social norms. And because the safe space starts right outside most urbanites’ front doors, children can take off on their own to bike to school, to sports fields, libraries and stores. The famous Dutch cycling lane network depends on people of all ages being able to safely navigate their neighbourhood streets before reaching the cycle lanes along major roads.” [click the link for the full article]
Godzilla El Niño could surpass the epochal El Niño of 1877
“A climate monster is growing right now in the Pacific Ocean, perhaps the most fearsome El Niño since before scientists even began modeling them. They now know the pattern quite well: A marine heat wave in the Pacific Ocean scrambles global weather and produces in some places more intense droughts and in others more intense rainfall and flooding; disruptions to hurricane patterns and monsoon seasons, which can cause widespread crop failures; and much more punishing heat.
“The El Niño building right now, and expected to crest around the end of next year, arrives on top of all our global warming. And it appears stupendously intense — almost certainly stronger than the ‘Super’ El Niño of 2015-16, and perhaps the most intense since the epochal El Niño of 1877. The global consequences of that climatic event were so devastating that the environmental historian Mike Davis called them ‘Late Victorian Holocausts’.
“How much will burn in the 18 months to come? It is still too early to say with confidence, since, though the models are flashing red, we are still early enough in the season that scientists tend to be cautious in their projections. But some are already calling it a ‘Super Duper’ El Niño, and others a ‘Godzilla’ El Niño.
“And underlying warming has been accelerating in recent years, disconcertingly, raising the possibility that even a brief spike will push the planet into genuinely uncharted territory temperature-wise. In fact, it’s almost certain that this El Niño will make 2027 the hottest year on record by some margin, and there is a chance, the climate scientist James Hansen has suggested, that global average temperatures would jump to 1.7 degrees above the preindustrial average next year.” [click the link for the full article]
From feast to famine — climate heating ravaging agriculture
“For five days at the end of April 2024, temperatures in the central and southern regions [of Brazil] climbed to sweltering heights. Just the month before the heat index in Rio de Janeiro reached a staggering 144.1 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest in a decade.
“The two events were part of a cycle of prolonged and severe periods of heat that hit one of the world’s largest agricultural powerhouses. Yields of soy and corn fell in southeastern states like São Paulo. Peanuts, potatoes, sugarcane, and arabica coffee also suffered widespread losses.
“Much of this data is documented in a new joint report released by the World Meteorological Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Brazil is the sole country-level case explored in detail. But a few dozen other nations are mentioned in the 94-page document, too.
“In Chile, warming seas in 2016 killed off an estimated 100,000 metric tons of farmed salmon and trout, creating the largest aquaculture mortality event in history. In the U.S.’s Pacific Northwest in 2021, entire raspberry and blackberry harvests were lost.
“Much of South Asia, tropical Sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of Central and South America could experience as many as 250 days a year that are simply too hot to work outside by the close of the century.
“Naia Ormaza Zulueta, a postdoctoral researcher, questions whether their report focuses enough on the people who grow, harvest, and raise the world’s food. First, the worker exposure calculations omit both hourly and nighttime wet-bulb exposure — meaning that she thinks the number of days of dangerous heat identified in the report is likely an undercount.” [click the link for the full article]
Beware ubiquitous plastic dust motes in you home and home planet
“In the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, pieces of plastic tumble against each other. They break down into particles tiny enough to be borne aloft on the wind, where they have a climate impact that could affect us all, according to new research. But there are many other places where tiny plastic particles can be whipped up into the skies, including from landfills, roadside litter, and car tires.
“A report by a team of scientists from China and the US ‘reveals a long overlooked link between plastic pollution and climate change’, said Hongbo Fu, a study author. They wanted to know whether particles scattered sunlight back into space, or whether they absorbed sunlight, which would have a warming impact.
“Colored plastics, especially red, yellow, blue and black, absorbed around 75 times more light than non-pigmented plastics. Microplastics and nanoplastics produce roughly 16% the warming impact of black carbon, or soot, a powerful airborne pollutant.” [click the link for the full article]
Why Do We Exist? The Nine Realms of the Universe That Make You Possible
“Life is concentrated energy. A single year of sunshine delivers more energy to Earth’s surface than all of Earth’s known fossil fuel reserves combined. Fossil fuels derive their name from their origin as the remnants of ancient life, including wetland forests, and algae, and zooplankton.
“But why does life exist at all? There is a theory that explains the emergence of life as a natural consequence of molecules self-organizing to absorb and then dissipate heat energy. There are some elements of the process that we have deciphered.
“Before organic evolution, there was molecular evolution. As we have learned, stars synthesize most elements. However, none of the processes produces the complex molecules on which life depends.
“Nature excels at forming simple molecules consisting of one or two types of atoms – Nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O2), and hydrogen (H2). The types of molecules life uses, such as amino acids for building proteins and nucleotide bases for RNA and DNA, contain many more atoms and are much more complex. For life to take hold, there must be an evolutionary process that uses simple molecules as the starting material and, over time, builds more complex molecules.
“The second law of thermodynamics says that, over time, things naturally break down and become more random. But inside a living cell, the opposite happens: the cell builds structures, carries out precise chemical reactions, and maintains order. This isn’t magic; it results from the membrane’s ability to control what happens inside.
“For Earth life, cell membranes are formed from a type of fat molecule known as a lipid. Lipids form abundantly in nature and have a remarkable property: When placed in water, they spontaneously self-organize into spherical structures — essentially primitive membranes. They might be one of the easiest and most natural steps toward life.
“”Water, the liquid solvent of life on Earth, is particularly good at providing a flexible, dynamic environment where molecules can move, interact, and undergo the chemical reactions necessary for life. Water helps proteins and other biological molecules fold into the right shapes to function properly, and it supports the flow of energy that cells need to survive. Water is also abundant not only on Earth but throughout our solar system and the universe.
“After a [membrane] vessel and a liquid, the next two ingredients required are large, complex genetic messenger molecules like RNA and DNA, and proteins necessary for structure and metabolism. The Planet Simulator experiment showed that these molecules can form spontaneously in nature, and not just on Earth.
“As of 2022, all five nucleotide bases that form RNA and DNA have been found in meteorites. As for proteins, we’ve known since the 1950s that the amino acids used by proteins can be spontaneously produced. At a minimum, the universe appears to be brimming with protocells, amino acids, and RNA.
“What makes Earth special is that our liquid water is bathed in sunlight. The oceans of Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, Enceladus, Pluto, Triton, Mimas, and Ceres are covered by miles of ice, rock, or a completely opaque atmosphere — and sometimes all three. [click the links for the full articles]
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