Food-Energy-Water Security, Biodiversity, & Climate Change in the Nilotic Great Lakes | Les Kaufman

Boston University African Studies CenterFeb 19, 2021

Walter Rodney Lecture hosted by the Boston University African Studies Center, on February 16, 2021.

Restless Etna | 300m-high clouds of ash cover Sicily’s skies

RT Mar 5, 2021

Sicily’s Mount Etna continued its moment of restlessness during the early hours of Thursday morning.

UN: Global food waste doubled in 2019

CGTN America Mar 5, 2021

An estimated 931 million tonnes of food were thrown out in 2019, according to the United Nations. That accounts for 17 percent of all food available to consumers, and it’s not just a rich nation problem. UN correspondent Liling Tan reports.

Science Behind a Completely FRESH Arctic Ocean Under a Kilometer Thick Ice Shelf Cap: Part 1 of 2

Paul Beckwith

Mar 5, 2021

I delve into the details of the science behind the remarkable new finding that the entire Arctic Ocean was essentially fresh water trapped beneath kilometer thick ice shelves that extended from Arctic coastlines to essentially create a thick ice cap over the entire Arctic Ocean, extending from the landlocked Bering Strait region all the way across the Arctic region to the Greenland-Scotland Ridge.

The scientific evidence behind this incredible finding is very strong. Within salty sea water, there is naturally occurring dissolved uranium, with concentrations proportional to the dissolved salt content. This uranium decays to Thorium-230 which then goes into the seafloor sediments close to the site of production. There is also Calcium, and Manganese, and Sulphur in the salts. During the time periods when the Arctic Ocean was fresh water, with no salt content, these components drop to near zero levels.

How could this happen? With global sea levels 130 meters lower, and a sea ice shelf cap over the Arctic nearly 1 km thick, connections to the other oceans were basically closed off. Over thousands of years, the freshwater discharge into the Arctic Ocean, estimated at 1,200 cubic kilometers per year (20% of Amazon River discharge) filled the Arctic volume under the ice shelf cap, forcing out all the salt water.

Amazing stuff. Not only that, but as the glacial periods ended and the ice shelves receded, the 9 million cubic kilometers of fresh water under the Arctic cap was rapidly released to the Atlantic Ocean and then later the Pacific Ocean, causing abrupt global climate system lurches.

Science of a Completely FRESH Arctic Ocean — Thorium-230, Calcium, Beryllium-1 0: Part 2 of 2

Paul Beckwith – Mar 5, 2021

I delve into the details of the science behind the remarkable new finding that the entire Arctic Ocean was essentially fresh water trapped beneath kilometer thick ice shelves that extended from Arctic coastlines to essentially create a thick ice cap over the entire Arctic Ocean, extending from the landlocked Bering Strait region all the way across the Arctic region to the Greenland-Scotland Ridge.

The scientific evidence behind this incredible finding is very strong. Within salty sea water, there is naturally occurring dissolved uranium, with concentrations proportional to the dissolved salt content. This uranium decays to Thorium-230 which then goes into the seafloor sediments close to the site of production. There is also Calcium, and Manganese, and Sulphur in the salts. During the time periods when the Arctic Ocean was fresh water, with no salt content, these components drop to near zero levels.

How could this happen? With global sea levels 130 meters lower, and a sea ice shelf cap over the Arctic nearly 1 km thick, connections to the other oceans were basically closed off. Over thousands of years, the freshwater discharge into the Arctic Ocean, estimated at 1,200 cubic kilometers per year (20% of Amazon River discharge) filled the Arctic volume under the ice shelf cap, forcing out all the salt water.

Amazing stuff. Not only that, but as the glacial periods ended and the ice shelves receded, the 9 million cubic kilometers of fresh water under the Arctic cap was rapidly released to the Atlantic Ocean and then later the Pacific Ocean, causing abrupt global climate system lurches.

How COVID-19 Might Solve the Climate Crisis

Facing Future

Mar 4, 2021

In their new book ‘A Chicken Can’t Lay a Duck Egg: How COVID-19 Can Solve the Climate Crisis,’ Graeme and Bernice Maxton argue that #ClimateChange​ can’t be fixed within the existing economic system. That system, properly called ‘growth economics,’ is predicated upon exploitation of both planet and people, and fundamental social inequities, that fuel destruction of the biosphere to further enrich rich and powerful individuals and corporations. As we have been pointing out for years, nothing can grow forever in a finite container. Growth economics is founded upon the basic believe that the human economy can grow forever, and grow exponentially at that! Last we checked the Earth was a finite container. Graeme, former Secretary General of the #ClubOfRome​, an international network of thought leaders created to address the multiple crises facing humanity and the planet, explains that the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how humanity can refrain from #EcologicalDevastation​ without causing widespread #EconomicCollapse​. As this understanding grows, so too will an intolerance for #BusinessAsUsual​. The immediate task is to build a groundswell of support for three basic but urgent goals: 1) a radical reduction in the use of fossil fuels, 2) an end to #GlobalDeforestation​, and 3) sensible reform of the agricultural system.

BYSO’s Virtual ‘Tutti’ Gala: March 6, 2021

Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras BYSO  – Mar 1, 2021

Mark your calendars for our annual celebration of the 550 young musicians of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras! Join us and special guests for an evening of music and community— all together at home: http://bysoweb.org/gala

How the climate crisis is accelerating food systems reform | Greenbiz

By Jim Giles– February 5, 2021

Future Meat Technologies, an Israeli startup, can now produce a cultured chicken breast for $7.50. Photo courtesy of Future Meat

For more great analysis of sustainable food systems, sign up for Food Weekly, our free email newsletter.

I was chatting recently with a veteran strategy wonk about the world’s stuttering progress toward decarbonization. Electricity generation was an early focus. More recently, the transport sector began to move away from fossil fuels. But what about food and ag? Farm-to-fork emissions are on a par with transport and electricity, said the wonk, yet progress has been lamentably slow in comparison.

It’s true: Food and ag are late to this party. But I increasingly find myself floored by the rate of progress in these sectors. It’s not uniform by any means — in fact, some food systems players are actively resisting reform. Still, the innovation in technologies, strategies and policies is remarkable. Here are three developments — all just from the past week — that speak to the sometimes dizzying pace of change.

The price is (almost) right

A couple of years back, I visited a U.S. startup and saw a nugget of chicken meat the team had grown in the lab. I asked if I could try some. No chance, they said. A plateful would cost several hundred dollars.

This week, Future Meat Technologies, an Israeli startup, announced it can produce a cultured chicken breast for $7.50. That’s many multiples more expensive than the chicken in your local supermarket, but it represents an astonishing reduction in price from even just a few years ago. In a 2013 demo, for instance, scientists showed off a lab-grown burger that cost $325,000.

It was an “odd demonstration of one view of the future of food,” the New York Times wrote at the time. Now the idea is no longer odd, and the future is almost here. Future Meat Technologies just raised $27 million in new funding from a roster of big names that includes Tyson Foods, Archer Daniels Midland and S2G Ventures. The company hopes to start pilot production later this year.

“We remain very optimistic that alternative protein foods will reach price parity and eventually price superiority with animal proteins over the next few years,” said Zak Weston at the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that promotes alternative proteins, in response to the announcement.

Why does this matter? Animal products are responsible for an outsized proportion of both food system emissions and the land we devote to agriculture. Shifting some production to a lab potentially could lead to big savings on both fronts.

Carbon neutral, profit positive

Last year, a leading U.S. dairy organization said it would transition the industry to “carbon neutral or better” by 2050. That’s a necessary target, but I found the announcement frustratingly light on specifics. Commitments to change three decades from now don’t mean much without a detailed plan on how to get there.

Well, some details were filled in this week — and they’re encouraging. Using data shared by the industry, the Markets Institute at the World Wildlife Fund looked at the potential impact of emission-reductions options available to dairy farmers today, including feed additives that reduce methane-filled bovine burps and the use of digester technology to produce natural gas from manure. Large dairies, concluded WWF, could reach net-zero emissions within five years and generate a return of almost $2 million per farm in the process.

That’s remarkable potential for an industry that’s responsible for around 2 percent of U.S. emissions. It’s not going to happen without government help, however. Many dairy operators can’t afford the upfront costs of digesters and can’t easily access renewable subsidies for the natural gas the equipment produces. That’s something the new U.S. administration should look at, which brings us to the week’s third development…

…(read more).

Food-matters,

Alternatives to “Green Revolution” Technology for Long-Term Agricultural Sustainability & Survival | EV & N 381 | CCTV

http://ecoethics.net/2014-ENVRE120/20210307-EV&N-381-Link.html

https://www.cctvcambridge.org/node/769472

YouTube Version

Current forms of petro-intensive agriculture derived from “Green Revolution” technology are suicidal for the collective human community.   Fortunately, alternative forms of restorative and regenerative agriculture are available and now need to become widely adopted throughout the world to enable the human community to achieve a sustainable future.

For background and support material see:

• The “Green Revolution:” Its Essence, Achievements & Aftermath

Food-matters,