Environmental groups sued the Bureau of Land Management and won, for making their 20 year plan for western #Colorado without consulting with tribes nor accounting for the impact their 20 year plan would have on #ClimateChange.

They rewrote their plan and have two options to choose from. One option, Alternative F, is actually pretty damn good (especially compared to the original)

We have until November 1st to comment and advocate for Alternative F

I blogged about it at clayton.computer/climate-justi…

Demand Environmental Justice in Western Colorado

For the past 200 years Western Colorado has been ravaged by mining and fossil fuel profiteering. This is largely because of the complicity of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

^{Clayton Dewey (clayton.computer)}

According to OurWorldInData, 80 billion animals are slaughtered for food each year.

The scale of what eat (& waste) is massive, which contributes to #ClimateChange & degrades the environment.

In the US, we consume ~280lbs (127 kg) /person/year (not including fish & seafood).

Beef has the most significant environmental impact & Argentinians consume 104lbs (47 kg) of beef/person/year. #food

Scientists in China have found evidence that our ancestors were almost entirely wiped out ~1 million years ago.

Why? #ClimateChange

While not every expert agrees, the research is intriguing & @Carl_Zimmer has the details: nytimes.com/2023/08/31/science… #science

Globally we produce A LOT of #energy, but did you know the majority of fossil energy gets wasted? In the US alone, two-thirds of that energy is *wasted* as heat.

As Hannah Ritchie has pointed out, we don’t actually need to produce a low carbon equivalent of all of the coal, oil & gas we currently use.

That means we can decarbonize quickly by being less wasteful & more efficient. #ClimateChange #science

In my opinion, Earth is better with emperor penguins on it. So I truly hope we do all we can to prevent their extinction. #ClimateChange #nature

bbc.com/news/science-environme…

Climate change: Thousands of penguins die in Antarctic ice breakup

Vast numbers of emperor penguin chicks drown as sea-ice melts and collapses underneath them.

^{By Jonathan Amos (BBC News)}

in 2013, coal generated 175 times as much electricity as #solar power in the US. Within a decade, in 2022, coal was generating less than 5 times as much electricity (incl. estimated rooftop solar).

So far this year, coal has generated slightly more than twice as much electricity as all solar.

Coal is dying here but needs to die even faster.
#energy #climate #climateChange #ClimateCrisis
eia.gov/electricity/monthly/ep…

I wish I didn't have to tell you about this again, but I do. It's not being reported much in the news — and you know why?

Because it's not 'new' (the origin of the word 'news'), it's old. This has been going on for months now, and corporate news outlets are simply tired of reporting it. But it is still happening.

Canada's boreal forests are burning up.

At least 1100 fires are active, more than 700 out of control. Over 13 million hectares have been burned so far, with no end in sight. It's an unprecedented climate and environmental disaster.

#Canada #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

SOURCE OF MAP -- ciffc.ca/

A cost-effective, scalable & available solution to reduce the #climate impact of flying?

Yes please. blog.google/technology/ai/ai-a…

Contrails - those thin, white lines behind airplanes - account for ~35% of aviation's #ClimateChange impact.

New research reveals how #AI & satellite imagery can help us reduce their warming effects.

How AI is helping airlines mitigate the climate impact of contrails

We used AI to help airlines choose routes that are less likely to cause contrails, minimizing the environmental impact of flights.

^{Carl Elkin (Google)}

It’s worth noting that by Fall of 2012, the majority of both Republican & Democrat voters acknowledged #ClimateChange is occurring. But not the majority of all politicians.

Back then, I ran large public opinion surveys out of UT Austin & it was the first time citizens from both parties agreed. (Here’s a 2015 SciAm piece w totals blogs.scientificamerican.com/p…)

We can’t said what changed attitudes, but a drought had impacted U.S. crops that summer & the pope was also discussing #climate. /2

Over 3 out of 4 Americans Now Acknowledge Climate Change Is Occurring--Including the Majority of Republicans

Seventy-six percent of Americans now say that climate change is occurring, up eight points from one year ago. And Republicans are largely responsible

^{Scientific American Blog Network}

NYT’s opinion writer Paul Krugman is declaring #climate is now a culture war issue 🤔

I worked in the U.S. Senate ~20 years ago. Covered climate as a journalist. Cofounded an NGO focused on science policy issues during elections. Am finishing a dissertation on how Congress has made decisions about #science policy for the last 1/2 century - with climate as a central theme.

This isn’t new. #ClimateChange has *always* been a culture war issue.

Latest cartoon: Quackery Quotas

The right's cries for "ideological diversity" sound fair to well-meaning people who believe in good-faith debate as a way to arrive at the truth. But truth is not the goal here; the goal is power.

#education #science #college #university #climatechange

It shouldn’t need to be said, but given some comments, let me be clear: This is not a post about harming cats.

The point is that special interests have been framing the narrative around renewables in ways that aren’t evidence based to influence public opinion away from supporting wind turbines & other technologies.

But we need to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels to address #ClimateChange. /3

In the U.S., recent annual estimates of bird deaths due to:

Cats = 2.4 billion bird deaths

Collisions from building glass = 600 million bird deaths

Land wind turbines = <200,000 bird deaths

Some politicians claim wind turbines “kill all the birds.”

But… they’re not really worried about birds. Rather, they prefer we stick with oil & gas over renewable #energy.

statista.com/chart/amp/15195/w… #climatechange

Wind Turbines Are Not Killing Fields for Birds

This chart shows the annual estimated bird mortality for selected anthropogenic causes in the U.S.

^{Sarah Feldman (Statista)}

Can somebody help me understand this please: why would we ever give out carbon credits for not chopping down a forest? “Here’s a forest we shouldn’t cut down anyway. Because we’re not cutting it down, now you can burn more fossil fuels!”

theguardian.com/australia-news…

#Australia #ClimateChange

NSW Liberal plan to generate carbon credits by ending logging in state forests snubbed by federal Labor

Exclusive: State ministers touted ‘significant carbon abatement’ plus benefits for threatened species and regional economies

^{Peter Hannam (The Guardian)}

So excited to read @MichaelEMann’s new book, “Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons From Earth’s Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis.”

Mann is an incredible climate scientist & storyteller. I have no doubt this will be a fantastic & hopeful must-read for 2023! #ClimateChange

Yes. This is #ClimateChange.

latimes.com/world-nation/story…

You can make a huge impact on your own climate impact with this one weird trick: going plant-based. Animal ag is responsible for about half of global emissions.

news.stanford.edu/2022/02/01/n…

#vegan #ClimateChange mastodon.world/@MatthiasSchmel…

New model explores link between animal agriculture and climate change | Stanford News

Phasing out animal agriculture represents “our best and most immediate chance to reverse the trajectory of climate change,” according to a new model developed by scientists from Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley.

^{Stanford News}

Hi Jen,

I have had a go at a Titanic analogy in my petition below:

I believe you/others might be interested in a petition for radical reform of the UN 🇺🇳, which has been vocal, but sadly largely ineffective, when faced with 21st century challenges such as #ClimateChange.

If indeed you are interested, the petition is accessible via toot:

toot.community/@Paullima/10940…

Latest cartoon: Titanic Failure

#science #climatechange #climatecrisis #climate #cartoon #comic

An upcoming episode of Serving Up Science is all about how soil sustains life & is critical in conversations about #ClimateChange & #food security.

Here you can see two glasses where I poured water over tilled (left) & untilled (right) soil.

The details will be in the full episode, but the take home is that soil structure matters. Healthy soil prevents erosion & flooding, stores carbon, supports biodiversity & keeps our crops growing. 🌱