Category Archives: Climate Change

Because we’ve stuffed staggering numbers of cows on factory farms we live in a cow toilet

[ Book review of “Cowed: The hidden impactof 93 million cows” by Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer] Hayes, Denis and Gail. 2015. Cowed: The Hidden Impact of 93 … Continue reading

Posted in Antibiotics, Biodiversity Loss, CO2 and Methane, Pollution, Soil | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Failing states, collapsing systems: biophysical triggers of political violence

Preface. In this post I summarize the sections of Nafeez’s book about the biophysical factors that bring nations down (i.e. climate change drought & water scarcity, declining revenues after peak oil, etc.) The Media tend to focus exclusively on economic … Continue reading

Posted in Cascading Failure, Caused by Scarce Resources, Collapse of Civilizations, Collapsed & collapsing nations, Drought & Collapse, Exports decline to ZERO, Food production, Interdependencies, Limits To Growth, Middle East, Other Experts, Over Oil, Overpopulation, Peak Oil, Violence, War & Violence | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Fruit and nut crops decline as climate change melts fog

Fimrite, P. May 22, 2014. As Central Valley fog disappears, fruit, nut crops decline. San Francisco Chronicle. California produces 95% of U.S. fruit and nut crops that depend on disappearing Tule fog. The soupy thick tule fog that regularly blanketed … Continue reading

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Limited Cognition

Gifford, R. May 2011. The Dragons of Inaction: Psychological barriers that limit climate change mitigation and adaptation.  PubMed. Limited cognition.  Humans are far less rational than once believed.  1: Ancient brain Our physical brain hasn’t evolved much in 30,000 years. … Continue reading

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Missing monsoon crashes Indus Valley Civilization

19 March 2014 Withering monsoon may have doomed past Asian society. NewScientist. The Indian summer monsoon abruptly weakened 4200 years ago. The ensuing drought may have led to the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization, which flourished around the Indus … Continue reading

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Climate change impacts on energy, water, and land use in the U.S.

Hibbard, K., et al. 2014: Ch. 10: Energy, Water, and Land Use. Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment, U.S. Global Change Research Program, 257-281. http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/sectors/energy-water-and-land [ Excerpts from this 25 page document, charts/tables: best … Continue reading

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Clouds may not curb global warming as much as hoped for

The following article, Clouds Play Lesser Role in Curbing Warming, Study Finds, is from climatecentral.org Analysis of the first seven years of data from a NASA cloud-monitoring mission suggests clouds are doing less to slow the warming of the planet than … Continue reading

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Twice as many El Niños in 21st century

Expect more drought, flooding, and other crazy weather In Nature Climate Change, doi.org/q4c, researchers predict that  El Niños will become twice as common, about once a decade in the future versus every 20 years the past century. Another recent study … Continue reading

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Plants are sucking streams dry thanks to more CO2

Slezak, M. October 24, 2015. Carbon emissions make Earth greener but are also drying it out. NewScientist. Source: Ukkola, A. M., et al. October 19, 2015 Reduced streamflow in water-stressed climates consistent with CO2 effects on vegetation. Nature Climate Change 6, … Continue reading

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Vines are taking over forests

Laurance, W. October 5, 2013. Planet of the vines: Climbing plants are taking over. NewScientist. Giant vines are beginning to strangle Earth’s tropical forests, and it’s not just due to climate change. Gaze out over a tropical rainforest and the … Continue reading

Posted in Biodiversity Loss, BioInvasion, Climate Change | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment