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January 19 2021
Happy New Year? 2021 hasn't really gotten off to a great start but
perhaps it will improve, at least for a while. A still-raging pandemic,
record levels of debt and the winding down of that 'shale revolution'
may dampen an economic recovery for much of the world.
Books
Recently finished reading 'Deer Hunting with Jesus'[0] by the late Joe
Bageant and am now working through Neil Postman's 'Amusing Ourselves
to Death'[1], both of which I've seen referenced numerous times but never
got around to when they were first published. Both are recommended for
anyone trying to wrap their head around why so many seemingly well-off
white folks thought it was very important to storm the US capitol during
a routine electoral college vote certification.
News
In other news, 2020 is now considered the hottest on record, narrowly
beating out 2016, more impressive when you consider humanity cut it's
carbon emissions by roughly 7%. My guess is record forest fires and a
slight drop in aerosol masking helped to make up the difference. Oh,
and those methane clathrates in the shallow East Siberian Arctic Shelf
have started to bubble in earnest[2]. It's often pointed out that
methane, while a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 -- estimates
are between 25 to 85 times -- is relatively short lived, converting to
CO2 within 15 years. Unfortunately that's a moot point once a steadily
increasing source of NH4 comes online.
Random
Stuff that caught my attention recently:
- Climatologist Paul Beckwith has a 15 minute "State of the Climate"[3]
on his YouTube channel. Shifting baselines really seems to bug him.
- 'Science Talk with Jim Massa'[4], also on YouTube. Massa is a
retired oceanographer who worked in the arctic and now is an educator
in Fairbanks Alaska. A bit dry at times but he strives to present an
accurate view of the current science on a variety of topics of interest
to anyone concerned about the viability of life on this planet. His
recent 49 min video titled 'Barreling Towards Hothouse Earth'[5] is
an excellent example.
- The Swiss Re Index[6], a ranking of global ecosystem health by country.
Apparently 20% are at risk of ecosystem collapse, mostly due to loss
of biodiversity.
Doom Primer
Looking through Under Deconstruction it occurred to me that perhaps some
sort of primer, a Gentle Introduction to Our Uncertain Future is in order.
There are various essay and video links that come to mind but I'm open to
suggestions from anyone else exploring such topics. See the 'About' page
for contact info.
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Refs:
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_Hunting_with_Jesus
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death
[2] https://v.gd/PnLnwT (Siberian Times article)
https://youtu.be/6MaT8RsFrqo
[3] https://youtu.be/O0lgTAEUYyA
[4] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpHeW5Ok5GbF3bUVyrfnxWg
[5] https://youtu.be/OR0fJJeNBwg
and some related links:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-09/uoc--hro090820.php
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vh4j5s2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representative_Concentration_Pathway
[6] https://v.gd/q1da4Y (SwissRe.com)