We NEED Climate Operation Warp Speed: We’re close to a Terrestrial Biosphere Tipping Po int: 1 & 2

Paul Beckwith

Mar 18, 2021
Humanity desperately needs a Climate Operation Warp Speed (COWS). Earthlings must pull out all stops, and work relentlessly until COWS comes home to Earth.

We did it for the coronavirus. The average time to develop a new vaccine is ten years. Since big governments around the planet pushed hard to develop vaccines, it took less than a year, and we know have multiple working vaccines (20? 30?)

Governments around the world put in multi-billion dollar preorders for vaccines, and ongoing deployment logistics to a large fraction of countries population is still ongoing. Science was prepared, with DNA based development, and perhaps lucky. Global cooperation resulted in the fasted vaccine mobilization in history, by an order of magnitude (10x).

This should be a lesson. When facing a world-threatening crisis, there are no substitutes for government leadership. It makes me feel better about our chances in diverting a comet or asteroid if we find one will hit us in a decade or two. Why can’t government do this for our climate crises.

We need COWS. We need COWS.

We will not rest until COWS come home!

There is no time to waste. We are extremely close to a temperature tipping point for the terrestrial biosphere. Our land sink presently captures about 30% (2.6 PgC per year) of our yearly anthropogenic carbon emissions. With Business-as-Usual (BAU) keeping us on the highest emission scenario (RCP8.5) the land temperatures will cause our land carbon sink to become a net carbon source by about 2040, and then atmospheric and ocean carbon will skyrocket.

I discuss the latest science on C3 (most plants) having a photosynthesis maximum at 18C, and C4 plants (grasses, corn) having the maximum at 28C. The mean temperature of the warmest quarter of the year (3 months) passed the thermal maximum for photosynthesis within the last decade. With BAU the land sink capture will halve to only 15% of anthropogenic emissions and the overall land surface will tip to a source.

In Part 1 of my two part video series, I chat about the key highlights of the terrestrial tipping point science.

In Part 2 I delve into the graphs and nitty gritty of the science and why we can expect the land to tip over from a net carbon sink to a carbon source within two decades or so.

Paul Beckwith

Mar 18, 2021

Humanity desperately needs a Climate Operation Warp Speed (COWS). Earthlings must pull out all stops, and work relentlessly until COWS comes home to Earth.

We did it for the coronavirus. The average time to develop a new vaccine is ten years. Since big governments around the planet pushed hard to develop vaccines, it took less than a year, and we know have multiple working vaccines (20? 30?)

Governments around the world put in multi-billion dollar preorders for vaccines, and ongoing deployment logistics to a large fraction of countries population is still ongoing. Science was prepared, with DNA based development, and perhaps lucky. Global cooperation resulted in the fasted vaccine mobilization in history, by an order of magnitude (10x).

This should be a lesson. When facing a world-threatening crisis, there are no substitutes for government leadership. It makes me feel better about our chances in diverting a comet or asteroid if we find one will hit us in a decade or two. Why can’t government do this for our climate crises.

We need COWS. We need COWS.

We will not rest until COWS come home!

There is no time to waste. We are extremely close to a temperature tipping point for the terrestrial biosphere. Our land sink presently captures about 30% (2.6 PgC per year) of our yearly anthropogenic carbon emissions. With Business-as-Usual (BAU) keeping us on the highest emission scenario (RCP8.5) the land temperatures will cause our land carbon sink to become a net carbon source by about 2040, and then atmospheric and ocean carbon will skyrocket.

I discuss the latest science on C3 (most plants) having a photosynthesis maximum at 18C, and C4 plants (grasses, corn) having the maximum at 28C. The mean temperature of the warmest quarter of the year (3 months) passed the thermal maximum for photosynthesis within the last decade. With BAU the land sink capture will halve to only 15% of anthropogenic emissions and the overall land surface will tip to a source.

In Part 1 of my two part video series, I chat about the key highlights of the terrestrial tipping point science.

In Part 2 I delve into the graphs and nitty gritty of the science and why we can expect the land to tip over from a net carbon sink to a carbon source within two decades or so.

farmlandgrab.org | RDC : Après relance, le parc agro industriel de Bukanga Lonzo pro duit 6 000 tonnes de maïs

Published: 15 Mar 2021 Short URL: https://farmlandgrab.org/30174
Posted in: DRC South Africa

Zoom-Eco.net | 15 mars 2021

RDC : Après relance, le parc agro industriel de Bukanga Lonzo produit 6 000 tonnes de maïs

By LaLe Parc agro industriel de Bukanga Lonzo a produit 6 000 tonnes de maïs, quelques mois après la relance de ce mega projet de la République Démocratique du Congo (RDC).

Selon les responsables du projet, il s’agit d’une première récolte de maïs planté sur une étendue de 1 500 hectares.

Après cette récolte, l’équipe de la coordination du Parc agro industriel de Bukanga Lonzo dit attendre la production de 6 000 tonnes de farine après transformation.

À en croire les membres d’une délégation du ministère de l’Agriculture qui a assisté à la séance de récolte, c’est une opération réussie.

« C’est une conséquence d’un travail bien fait. La moisson est là. Bukanga Lonzo décrété désertique mais l’expertise du ministre Joseph Antoine Kasonga vient de démontrer le contraire », a déclaré Joseph Lumbala, conseiller du ministre de l’Agriculture et membre de la délégation.

Selon les experts du gouveπrnement, il faudra maintenant porter un regard sur le débarrassement des épis après le test d’humidité, avant la conservation et le séchage. Après, suivra l’étape de la transformation.

« Bukanga Lonzo se porte mieux qu’à avant. Nous ne nous attendions pas à ces merveilles. Nous nous portons bien grâce à l’équipe avec laquelle nous travaillons, mais aussi beaucoup plus de soutien du ministère de l’Agriculture », a déclaré Matthieu Wongodi, coordonnateur du Parc Agro alimentaire de Bukanga Lonzo.

Ce dernier a affirmé que la minoterie construite sur le site abritant le Parc est moyenne et ne peut supporter la quantité disponible.

Pour palier à cette difficulté, le ministère de l’Agriculture indique que le reste de produits devra être pris en charge à Kinshasa, à la minoterie de Bwamanda. Rédaction

…(read more).

Banks, Markets and the End of the World | Chidi Oti-Obihara and Roger Hallam | August 2020

Extinction Rebellion

Published on Mar 8, 2021

Roger Hallam (Beyond Politics) in conversation with Chidi Oti-Obihara (Financial and Environmental activist and campaigner).

Help XR mobilise and donate: https://extinctionrebellion.uk/donate/​

Extinction Rebellion UK: https://extinctionrebellion.uk/​ International: https://rebellion.global/​ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExtinctionR​ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/XRebellionUK/​

1. Tell The Truth 2. Act Now 3. Beyond Politics

World Map of Extinction Rebellion Groups: https://rebellion.global/branches/​

Climate crisis: how to keep ‘listening to the science’ LIVE (With Prof Fredi Otto)

University of Oxford

Streamed live on Feb 12, 2021

Protesters around the world ask decision makers to “listen to the science” and act accordingly in light of the climate crisis. In some respects it is very simple what this means: we need to stop emitting greenhouse gases as quickly as possible, to stabilise global temperatures. But climate change is already here, affecting everyone everywhere today, this means we also need to adapt. But to what changes where? The science here is evolving quickly and the best available science is thus changing as well. In this talk, Professor Otto will give a brief overview of these evolutions and discuss how to best keep “listening to the science”.

To see upcoming talks in the Oxford at Home series, go to https://bit.ly/OxfordAtHome​

Oxford and Empire: Oxford and the Americas

Playlist – Oxford & Empire

Cuneiform Discoveries from Ancient Babylon

TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities

Published on Dec 13, 2019

Dr Frances Reynolds, Shillito Fellow in Assyriology, Faculty of Oriental Studies and St Benet’s Hall

In ancient Iraq, scribes used cuneiform (wedge-shaped) script to write hundreds of thousands of texts in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages on clay tablets. Akkadian, a language related to Arabic and Hebrew, was still written in Babylonia after the conquest of Alexander the Great. Newly published tablets show scholars in Babylon trying to boost the temple’s dwindling power under imperial rule.

Humanities Light Night – Oxford Research Unwrapped!

As part of the national Being Human Festival, and Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival, Humanities Light Night – Oxford Research Unwrapped! was a spectacular explosion of colour, sound and activity for all, including a huge video projection onto the 3-storey Radcliffe humanities building, premiering SOURCE: CODE which featured the work of Oxford Humanities Professors Jacob Dahl, Richard Parkinson and Armand D’Angour, and co-created by Oxford Humanities researchers and The Projection Studio, world-class projection and sound-artists. A series of talks took place during the evening, relating to the theme ‘Discovery’.

This event was part of the Humanities Cultural Programme.

Book at Lunchtime: The Political Life of an Epidemic – Cholera, Crisis and Citizenship in Zimbabwe

TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities

Published on Feb 9, 2021

A TORCH Book at Lunchtime event on The Political Life of an Epidemic: Cholera, Crisis and Citizenship in Zimbabwe by Professor Simukai Chigudu. With panellists Professor Sloan Mahone and Dr Jon Schubert.

Book at Lunchtime is a series of bite-sized book discussions held during term-time, with commentators from a range of disciplines. The events are free to attend and open to all.

About the book:

Zimbabwe’s catastrophic cholera outbreak of 2008–9 saw an unprecedented number of people affected, with 100,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths. Cholera, however, was much more than a public health crisis: it represented the nadir of the country’s deepening political and economic crisis of 2008. This study focuses on the political life of the cholera epidemic, tracing the historical origins of the outbreak, examining the social pattern of its unfolding and impact, analysing the institutional and communal responses to the disease, and marking the effects of its aftermath.

Across different social and institutional settings, competing interpretations and experiences of the cholera epidemic created charged social and political debates. In his examination of these debates which surrounded the breakdown of Zimbabwe’s public health infrastructure and failing bureaucratic order, the scope and limitations of disaster relief, and the country’s profound levels of livelihood poverty and social inequality, Simukai Chigudu reveals how this epidemic of a preventable disease had profound implications for political institutions and citizenship in Zimbabwe.

For more information on future TORCH events, you can subscribe to our newsletter at http://bit.ly/torchnews​.

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Tragedy and Plague, In Conversation with Professor Oliver Taplin and Fiona Shaw CBE

TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities

Streamed live on Jul 30, 2020

Tell us what you thought of our event this evening: https://torch.ox.ac.uk/feedback-torch​

TORCH Goes Digital! presents a series of live online events Big Tent – Live Events! This event is part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the future Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.

In Conversation with Professor Oliver Taplin and Fiona Shaw CBE

Biographies:

Fiona Shaw CBE Fiona Shaw is an actor and theatre and opera director. Fiona is known for her role as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter film series (2001–10), as Marnie Stonebrook in season four of the HBO series True Blood (2011), and as Carolyn Martens in the BBC series Killing Eve (2018–present), for which she won the 2019 BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress. For her performances in the second seasons of Killing Eve and the comedy-drama Fleabag, Shaw received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series respectively.

Fiona has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. She won the 1990 Olivier Award for Best Actress for various roles, including Electra, the 1994 Olivier Award for Best Actress for Machinal, and the 1997 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for The Waste Land. Her other stage work includes playing the title role in Medea in the West End and on Broadway (2001–02). She was awarded an Honorary CBE in 2001. In 2020, she was listed at number 29 on The Irish Times list of Ireland’s greatest film actors.

Professor Oliver Taplin, Emeritus Professor of Classics, Magdalen College, Oxford. Professor Oliver Taplin was a fellow of Magdalen College and Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford. Professor Taplin’s main teaching has been in all aspects of ancient Greek epic, tragedy and comedy: Classics, Classics (and Joint Honours), Classics and English, Classics and Modern Languages, Classics with Oriental Studies at Oxford University.

Oliver’s primary focus as a scholar was on Greek drama, especially from the viewpoint of staging and performance. His first book was The Stagecraft of Aeschylus, in which he dealt with the entrances and exits of characters in Aeschylus’s plays. Subsequent books, including Comic Angels (1993) and Pots and Plays (2007) examine vase paintings as evidence for the performance of tragedy and comedy. In 1996, together with Edith Hall, he set up the APGRD (Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama). It is devoted to the international production and reception of ancient plays since the Renaissance. He has also worked with productions in the theatre, including The Oresteia at the National Theatre (1980–81), The Thebans at the RSC (1991–92), and The Oresteia at the National Theatre (1999–2000). Apart from Greek drama, his chief area of interest was in Homer.

Among the general public, Oliver is probably best known for Greek Fire, a celebration of the capacity of Ancient Greek culture to stand the test of time and influence modern art, thought and society. The book accompanied a Channel 4 documentary series of the same name. The book has been translated into five languages. In 2008 Oliver took part in the programme “Greek and Latin Voices” for the BBC where he gave a talk on Homer and translated the Homeric texts for the programme.

Oliver retired as Tutor in Classics at Magdalen College, Oxford in 2008. The same year, Oxford University Press published Performance, Iconography, Reception: Studies in Honour of Oliver Taplin, edited by Martin Revermann and Peter Wilson.

Further related subjects include vase-painting and theatre; performance studies; reception of ancient literature in modern poetry; practical translation workshops. Currently he is working on a broad-brush book on Greek Tragedy, including a critique of Aristotle’s Poetics.

Talking Afropean

TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities

Streamed live on Oct 22, 2020

TORCH Goes Digital! presents a series of live online events Big Tent – Live Events! This event is part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the future Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.

Talking Afropean: Johny Pitts in conversation with Elleke Boehmer and Simukai Chigudu about his award-winning book.

This Writers Make Worlds and TORCH panel discussion features the author Johny Pitts in conversation about his ground-breaking travelogue Afropean, his 2019 notes on a journey around contemporary Black Europe.

Johny Pitts will explore together with Oxford academics Simukai Chigudu and Elleke Boehmer questions of black history, hidden archives, decolonization and community, and what it is to be black in Europe today. Hailed as a work that reframes Europe, Afropean was the 2020 winner of the Jhalak Prize.

Biographies: Johny Pitts is a writer, photographer and broadcast journalist, and the author of Afropean (2019). His work exploring African-European identity has received numerous awards, including a Decibel Penguin Prize and the Jhalak Prize. He has contributed words and images to the Guardian, the New Statesman and the New York Times.

Elleke Boehmer is a writer, historian, and critic. She is Professor of World Literature at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her most recent books are Postcolonial Poetics (2018) and To the Volcano (2019). She is currently on a British Academy Senior Research Fellowship working on a project called ‘Southern Imagining’.

Simukai Chigudu is Associate Professor of African Politics and Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford. Simukai is interested in the social politics of inequality in Africa and his first book The Political Life of an Epidemic: Cholera, Crisis and Citizenship in Zimbabwe came out in 2020. Prior to joining the academy, Simukai was a medical doctor in the UK’s National Health Service.

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With thanks to Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford, Oxford Digital Media, and Tom Kirkby.

Can the arts survive the pandemic? – YouTube

RT America

Published on Mar 17, 2021

RT America’s Faran Fronczak reports on the reopening of “ARTECHOUSE,” an interactive high-tech museum in Washington, DC and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on museums and galleries across the US. Then Rebecca Medrano, co-founder and executive director of GALA Hispanic Theater, joins Rick Sanchez to discuss the devastating blow the pandemic has dealt to the world of live theater, the current plight of working actors, whose livelihoods remain in peril, and the existential threat that the pandemic represents to the institution of live theater.