What's happening with climate change?

 Focusing on the environment, climate change, my link to what's actually happening...trying to stay grounded, connected to the earth, water, wind, and weather elements.

Katharine Hayhoe offered this in her newsletter this week (I'd already read the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, but I was sick)

"Americans who hear others talk about global warming at least once a month have higher levels of perceived collective political efficacy than those who hear others talk about global warming less often – 54% versus 39%," they found. (Yale Program on Climate Change Communication)

Political efficacy is a common indicator for the health of a civil society. Wikipedia defines it as “citizens’ trust in their ability to change the government and the belief they can understand and influence political affairs.”

 I don’t think this effect is limited to Americans; we’re all human. So wherever we live, this gives us even more reason to keep talking about climate change—with our friends, family, neighbours, and with our elected officials too. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, politicians usually underestimate how much their constituents care about climate risk and prioritize climate solutions, simply because they don’t hear from them. Now you know what to do about it!

"... our infrastructure was designed for a planet that no longer exists."

In Canada, Hayhoe said:*

Last year, we experienced an unprecedented, coast-to-coast wildfire season. It was so extreme that the area burned exceeded the entire country of Greece and produced four times the carbon emissions of global aviation. Focusing in on Quebec, scientists found that hot, dry weather due to climate change at least doubled the risk of such a season.

 

This June, the eastern half of Canada, from Ontario to the Maritimes, experienced a blistering heat wave that Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) scientists have shown was ten times more likely thanks to climate change.

 

Then, just last Tuesday, Toronto received a month’s worth of rain in just a few hours-- 100 millimeters or 4 inches. Roads and basements flooded, the Don River overflowed its banks, and a GO Transit train was surrounded by water with 1,400 passengers on board. Even Drake's mansion was inundated with muddy water. 

 

It’s the second time my hometown has faced major flooding in the past 11 years. Toronto last saw widespread flooding back in 2013, when 126 millimeters of rain fell in one day. Since then, the city has worked to become more flood-resistant, but climate change is outpacing its efforts. And this isn’t unique to Toronto; as the Canadian Climate Center points out, “over the last decade, the average cost of weather-related disasters and catastrophic losses each year has risen to the equivalent 5-6% of annual GDP growth.”

 

This increasing litany of disasters makes it clear: our infrastructure was designed for a planet that no longer exists. As scientist and former presidential science advisor John Holdren says, “We have three choices: mitigation, adaptation, and suffering. We’re going to do some of each. The question is what the mix is going to be. The more mitigation we do, the less adaptation will be required and the less suffering there will be.”

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And I can't skip her wonderful coverage of growing flowers in Albania to mine nickel, a vital component of EV batteries, ususally mined in Indonesia.

Now, a start-up in Albania called Metalplant is trying out a new kind of mining: "phytomining," that consists of growing and harvesting nickel-accumulating flowers. Phytomining only works in places where the soil has a high nickel content, and Albania fits that bill. Native plants like Odontarrhena decipiens "take in nickel like a macronutrient,” Aida Bani at the Agricultural University of Tirana in Albania, who is collaborating with Metalplant, told New Scientist.

 

Metalplant is also aiming to sequester carbon on its farms through "enhanced rock weathering," which involves spreading rock dust on the soil on its farms. This means that, rather than depleting ecosystem carbon stocks, they’ll be adding to them. “We’re able to turn the lowest-grade land in the world into some of the most lucrative land in the world,” said Eric Matzner, Metalplant's CEO. Each hectare could produce between 200 to 400 kilograms of nickel, they estimate.

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Keep in mind what John Holdren said: "“We have three choices: mitigation, adaptation, and suffering. We’re going to do some of each. The question is what the mix is going to be. The more mitigation we do, the less adaptation will be required and the less suffering there will be.”

I'm thinking more about Mitigation, Adaptation, and Suffering.

* Though Hayhoe and many of my blog and Facebook friends are Canadian, Dr. Hayhoe lives and teaches in Texas, when she's not traveling to give talks around the globe.