Green fatigue: is there a cure?

Image by Ieva Karklina from Pixabay

Shopping for raspberries in January: that’s when it all went wrong. There were none in the local supermarket, nor in the corner shops. Apples aplenty alongside oranges, kaki, avocados, tomatoes, lemons, pears ... a rainbow of fruit and veg, some shrouded in plastic, some gleaming freely. But no raspberries. And when it comes to fruit, my son will only eat raspberries. In the end, I caved in and bought a six-pack of Capri-Sun. Which is kind of fruit, isn’t it?

I was already exhausted from reading all the labels in the supermarket, trying to balance health concerns against environmental considerations. Perhaps some croissants as a treat? Simple, flaky and created using just eggs, flour and water, plus the artisanal skills of a pastry chef across the channel. Except, when I looked at the ingredients, they also contained emulsifiers, stabilisers, acidity regulators, flavourings, preservatives ... and they were in a plastic tray (“recyclable where facilities exist”) and plastic film (“not currently recyclable”).

Life aint a picnic

It didn’t end there. For sandwich fillings, the ubiquitous options, for both my family and packed lunches and canteens up and down the country, are cheese and/or ham: meat and dairy, two things that are causing serious, lasting and widespread environmental damage.

Crisps? Shrouded in plastic and full of Disodium 5'-ribonucleotides. Nuts are a healthy option, but also packaged in plastic and flown in from Turkey where, similar to the almond-growing regions of the US, mass production is putting an unsustainable strain on the environment through its high water consumption. All this stress for a picnic. In January. Whose idea was this, exactly?

Sitting at home with a strong cup of coffee (Fairtrade and organic, but served with milk) I realised I was suffering from ‘eco exhaustion’: that feeling we get after trying to do the right thing - reduce our reliance on single-use plastics, curb our consumption, eat local, consider the carbon footprint of everything, reduce and reuse before recycling - and then just give up. It’s oh so tiring having to consider all these factors all the time. Sometimes, it’s not even possible to know what the most environmentally friendly option is; how to balance competing considerations, such as carbon footprint versus single-use plastic? Yes, I could have gone to a zero-waste store, but that would have meant driving, as well as packing a rucksack full of Tupperware to bring everything home, which would have taken at least an hour longer.

And here’s the rub: would it have made a blind bit of difference?

Hero to zero

Last year, I joined a zero-waste group on Facebook. I was amazed by the enthusiastic eco-worrying of so many people, the lengths they go to so that they minimise their impact on the planet. Many had genuinely changed their lifestyles (admittedly their still high-consuming Western lifestyles) by sharing everything from lawnmowers to advice on how to upcycle or reuse rucksacks and car seats, and which herbs grow best on small window ledges.

But these actions are the tiniest drop in a very polluted ocean. Millions more people, even if they are aware of how our environment is being ruined, opt for convenience and price. The environmentally friendly option is often the more expensive one, and remains unrealistic (if not impossible) for many people.

I’ve done my bit. I’ve recycled for many, many years, and owned a reusable water bottle long before Blue Planet led to ‘plastic panic’. The mantra scribbled on a scrap of paper for over twenty years - “Be the change you want to see in the world” - has kept me going. I realised long ago it’s hard to change my own behaviour - let alone other people’s - and that fake news and environmental misinformation are more widespread than scientific evidence. That doesn't always mean I redouble my efforts; if anything, it makes it easier to give in.

Green fatigue means being so overwhelmed by environmental problems, and so baffled by eco choices, that you go for an option you know to be bad for the environment, which in turn creates a feeling of guilt. I know I shouldn’t even try to buy raspberries in January, and certainly not a soft drink in a pouch, but what can you do?

Well, there are a few things.

1. Plan. It’s easier to be green when you’re organised. You might not have time to bake your own bread using organic flour gently ground from happy wheatsheaves, but take the time to research which ‘normal’ bread is the best option (organic, palm-oil free and packaged sustainably). In fact, I’ve done that bit for you. 
2. Take your reusable coffee cup/water bottle/shopping bag with you. They’re not decorations, and there’s nothing worse (apart from war, maybe) than having good intentions and then leaving them on the draining board. Pack your bag each night, so you don’t forget these things in the mad dash to get to school/work/ the organic zero-waste shop down the road. 
3. Eat more chocolate. It’s hard being alive right now, but chocolate makes things a LOT better, and there are lots of palm-oil free, fair-trade options with compostable packaging. Indulge. 
4. Be honest. When people make claims that are contrary to what you know is correct - “all recycling ends up in landfill”, “if it wasn’t palm oil they’d just cut down the rainforest for something else”, “everybody flies so there’s no point in me not flying”, tell them you think differently. The world doesn’t make it easy to be green, but never feel bad for trying. 
5. Reconnect with nature. Being stuck in an office in a smelly old city adds to the sense of fatigue, but nature is never that far away. Plant some herbs, scatter some seeds, walk in the woods, hunt for mushrooms, look at flowers, wear your wellies and a grubby hoodie, get the train to the coast, compost some paper. OK, composting paper probably isn’t that much fun. But there are lots of wild ideas out there.

One-line book reviews: my best reads in 2019

Image by jacqueline macou from Pixabay

At the start of this year (2019, ten past seven in the evening as I start, so I'd better blog quickly), my friend Dan challenged me to read 30 books in a calendar year. Well, he said he was going to do it, which was as far as I was concerned the laying down of a silver-fingered gauntlet. It meant missing out on a lot of good telly, but I achieved it with a few to spare. This blog is not to gloat or show-off (those who know me will know I am a humble and quiet soul), but simply to see if a) I can write very succinct book reviews and b) anyone is wondering what to read in 2020... I won't link to any of the books, as Google tends to do a fine job if you want to read proper reviews or buy them, but if you can afford to bypass Amazon, the Big Green Bookshop is a wonderful online bookselling alternative.

1. Tombland by CJ Sansom: the most recent, and possibly final, episode of the ever-gripping Shardlake saga. He's my favourite literary detective by a mile. This, the seventh novel in the series, is a slower and weightier read than the previous ones and the political cup overfloweth to the occasional detriment of the plot. Still a wonderful read. And it inspired me to revisit Norwich, which is no mean feat.
2. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (OK by Mrs Harry Potter): the first of this series I've read, having enjoyed the televisations, and it does what it says on the tin: hard to put down and quick to finish. 
3. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara: wonderful. I've always been sniffy about American novels (with the exception of Revolutionary Road), not because of all the Zs where there should be Ss; simply that I find it harder to relate to the experiences described. A Little Life is a Big Book, and it is truly a great novel. For some people depression is a duvet they hide under until it eventually suffocates them. My sister warned me it would make me cry, and it did. 
4. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles: a surprise and most welcome gift. A book that takes on the form of the eponymous hero, with great acts of heroism done always using the correct cutlery. More gentlemanly than Russian, and a very different interpretation of a pivotal era (the early Stalin years). 
5. Carn by Patrick McCabe: A book about unhappy Irish people. I started and stopped and started and stopped this one, and I'm pleased I finally finished it. It's not a satisfactory read, and it's pretty bleak too. Almost a collection of linked short stories than a complete novel. Described as a novel about two women, but to me it felt very much about men.
6. Moscow, Midnight by John Simpson: I expected better from John Simpson (yes it's that Simpson, BBC foreign affairs guy). It's a bit of a silly novel frankly. There are (much) better spy books out there with much less clunky sex and violence. Who wants clunky sex after all?
7. The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams: there's a whole genre of modern novels, let's call it flit lit, that are written by women who seem to have spent too many years with their flower press as young girls. Strong female character v weaker female character + A Dark Secret x An Element of the Natural World (a moth, say or a sea monster) [must be set in the past] = bestselling novel. This is one of those books. A good read, but there do seem to be an awful lot of them. 
8. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami: the first and only novel by Murakami that I've read, and apparently the others are quite different. A novel to indulge in, like a long hot bath that runs too cold before you can bear to get out. Read it. 
9. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins: not the best or most convincing depiction of drunkenness (if that's what you're after, try Hangover Square or The Outrun). Good thriller though, which will have you nervously twitching at the curtains and eyeing your partner's phone. 
10. The Only Story by Julian Barnes: if you're going to give your novel (novella really) such a pretentious title, it'd better be good. And this is good; witty, cool and a modern update on The Graduate. I was very disappointed by the ending though. And of course, it's not the only story: on the contrary, it has echoes of every story ever written.
11. The Book and the Brotherhood by Iris Murdoch: I'm a massive fan of Iris Murdoch (although I've only read about 10 of her novels, and she wrote nearly 30, I think) and this is one of the best so far. It felt pleasingly dated, although it's set only in the 1980s (and in some ways could be seen as an early insight into some of the debates that came to define the Labour party as it transformed into New Labour). This isn't really a political novel, however. It's a novel about friendship, and how the people we love as friends can seem very different when their/our family get in the way. Reminded me of Donna Tartt's Secret History.  
12. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton: I saw the Big Twist coming earlier than I would have liked, but this is a very accomplished debut novel. Everyone else I've spoken to who has read it hated it though, so you have been warned. As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann is similar, and better. But hey! Read both...
13. Winds of the Day by Howard Spring: as my brother is keen to remind me, I am the only person in the world who still reads Howard Spring (not actually true: I once saw someone in the same tube carriage as me reading a different Howard Spring). His novels are like my Grandpa: intelligent, comfortable, reassuring and part of a bygone age. 
14. The Dreams of Bethany Melllmoth by William Boyd: I'm never sure whether I'm a fan of Boyd's really quite impressive range of writing or not. I enjoyed this collection of short stories, but they did not stay with me. And I'm all for writing about what you know, but does every character have to have literary aspirations? 
15. The Collected Dorothy Parker by ... doh: a pleasure to read works by someone as witty as myself, but the bitchiness conceals an astute insight into what a woman's lot really is. Brilliant. Best read cold. 
16. A Month in the Country by JL Carr: I cannot think why I picked up this novella about a man restoring a wall painting in a rural church after the war, but I'm glad I did. Like discovering a long forgotten item of clothing at the back of  a wardrobe, and being thrilled that it still fits. 
17. Transcription by Kate Atkinson: I waiver (waver?) between loving Kate Atkinson and being left completely untouched by her novels and characters. I got this as a sample on Kindle, and couldn't put it out of my mind, so bought the whole thing, and was slightly disappointed. Cest la vie. 
18. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters: nobody writes about sex as well as Sarah Waters, and this is a great novel. I found the reverse chronological structure irritating rather than Brechtian and brilliant, though. 
19. The Reckoning by Clár Ní Chonghaile: the only friend of mine whose name I always have to Google. Her third novel and, I think her best. It comprises letters written from a mother to her daughter many years after the events described, dealing mainly with the second world war and aftermath. A wonderful exploration of the mother-daughter relationship written in prose that is sometimes breathtakingly beautiful. 
20. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje: another novel dealing with the second world war and the fallout. I don't particularly relate to novels written in the voice of a teenage boy and I found this book dispassionate at times, but it's still a really good read. Just a little cold. 
21. Circe by Madeline Miller: it took me a while to get into this book, and I found the constant attempts to describe the gods a little wearing. But the main character is great and Miller just about holds a novel about the divine and the infinite together. 
22. Why Mummy Drinks by Gill Sims: I found it funnier when Mummy was a struggling drunkard rather than a very successful website entrepreneur but to be honest it's pretty funny throughout. 
23. The Master by Colm Tóibín: a quietly magnificent novel about the life of Henry James. See, it is possible to write a one-line book review. 
24. Women and Power by Mary Beard: two lectures Beard gave about, urm, women and power, in book form. You don't need to have any classical knowledge to enjoy and be inspired by this book, and Beard's treatment of the female voice and its suppression segues from Greeks to Thatcher to Twitter without pausing for breath (although presumably she did when delivering the lectures...) Read it and get cross. 
25. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriaty: reminiscent of The Slap in its queasy unpicking of suburban morality and examination of fracturing friendships and families, this is very readable, entertaining, interestingly structured (the narrative is interspersed with fragments of police and journalist interviews in the buildup to a big event) and I hear there's a TV version now too ...
    
26. The Warden by Anthony Trollope: OK, a novel about clerical finances won't be everyone's cup of tea but I really enjoyed this. Well, I did until I realised it was the first novel in a series of six. Maybe life's too short to reach all of the Barchester chronicles, but it's certainly long enough to read this one.  
27. The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru: if you like Salman Rushdie novels, you may well like this too. It concerns a boy growing up in India, and all the wonderful and horrible things that happen to him, before he makes a life for himself in England. A novel of duplicity, confusion and delight, it might have been better dealing with fewer themes as the overall result is rather exhausting. Fun though. 
28. Posh Boys (how Public Schools RuIn Britain) by Robert Verkaik: if one other minority group - of religion, gender, race or anything else - had such a disproportionate grip on all aspects of society, it would be greatly concerning. As it is, we all just get on with it. If the elite few who become adults via fee-paying schools kept themselves to themselves, it wouldn't matter. Instead they run our governments, companies, the judiciary and the media. The posh twats are in control, and they run the world for people like them. Be very scared.   
29. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber: an exciting, sexy and wickedly funny novel about a Victorian prostitute who finds a Richard Gere-type. I love the concept of the interrupting narrator, and the opening is wonderful. The brilliance isn't quite sustained throughout, but few novels can claim that. 
30. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson: Kate Atkinson treats the concept of time like playdoh, a malleable substance which can be used to create a lie as easily as it creates a truth. Perhaps the hero of this novel, Teddy, is a slightly unusual hero - too straight, too clean, too tidy - but I liked him as he reminded me of myself. The novel could equally have been called A Life in Order - there are few ruins and precious little god in it. But that wouldn't have been so catchy. 
31. The End We Start From by Megan Hunter: apparently this book is brilliant and won lots of awards for its crushing dystopian vision of a disintegrating world written in a first-person narrative that spits out from the page. I'm afraid to me it read like an A-level creative writing project gone wrong. 
32. The Familiars by Stacey Halls: I picked this up as a cheeky buy one get one half price when I needed to get a present for someone. It's about women and witches living in the early years of King James I of England. I could never believe in the narrator as a seventeen-year-old girl, and the plot is a bit too convenient. I enjoyed it, but there are better novels about witches (such as Corrag by Susan Fletcher). 
33. The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory: I've heard some people say there are too many novels about Tudor queens and royal hangers-on. Never! I won't hear a word of it. More sombre than some of Gregory's other novels but historically accurate enough, and Lady Jane Grey is a fascinating person. Was.  
34. The Fear Index by Robert Harris: as someone who works in digital, a novel about an algorithm driving hedge fund investments that goes wrong appealed to the geek in me. Like Dan Brown for maths fans, this nail-biting (I really did bite my nails, but then I do that when rereading Harry Potter) novel is exciting despite all the jargon. A tender exploration of mental instability it is not, however.

And that's it! 34 novels (well, books) in 12 months works out at, ooh, nearly three books a month. I've used the word 'but' far too often in this blog, BUT it's my blog so I can. If you only want one recommendation, read A Little Life if you want to weep, and A Gentleman In Moscow if you want to smile through the tears. 

Climate change: what could possibly go wrong?

Credit: pixabay

Explain the basics of the blanket effect 

It's like this. The greenhouse effect is like Manchester United, an unrivalled explanation of how CO2 emissions warm the planet. Then along comes a noisy neighbour, which explains the process even better, and buys up all the best players/feedbacks.

The greenhouse effect is a flawed description of how the Earth is warming, because a sealed greenhouse doesn't let much warm air out or cool air in. That's how it stay warm. The blanket effect is a way of describing the effect greenhouse gases are having on the Earth and its atmosphere. The Earth is warmed by heat from the Sun. Some of this heat is radiated back into space; however, the blankets of greenhouse gases prevent some of this heat radiation, and cause it to be reabsorbed, warming the Earth.

Describe one positive and one negative feedback mechanism in the climate system 

A positive feedback is like this: climate change sceptic Donald Trump is elected president of the US. He promotes policies that increase both global warming and the number of climate sceptics. This makes people less likely to make behavioural changes that limit global warming. Coal and fracked gas production increase, thus warming the planet further.

A negative feedback is like this: climate change sceptic Donald Trump is elected president of the US. He promotes policies that increase global warming. This results in sea level rises, severe weather events, and a melt in the permafrost. The melting permafrost opens up new opportunities for hydrocarbon exploitation in Russia. However, a 3,000-year-old virus is also released from the permafrost, decimating the global human population and greatly reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in a cooling planet and the permafrost resealing over.

Or perhaps it's more like this: A positive feedback mechanism in the climate system is ice albedo. The release of CO2 causes the planet to warm. This reduces ice cover in the polar regions. Reduced ice cover means a lower albedo, that is, less solar radiation is reflected back into the atmosphere from the earth's surface. This increases warming, which decreases ice cover.

A negative feedback mechanism in the climate system is silicate weathering. When it is warmer, it rains more. This increased rainfall weathers rocks, causing soil and stones to fall into the oceans. In the oceans, this weathered material connects with CO2 that has been absorbed by and dissolved into the oceans. This binds the CO2, preventing it from being released. Taking CO2 out of the atmosphere has a cooling effect, reducing rainfall, this reducing silicate weathering. A negative feedback loop enables the Earth to keep its temperature balanced.
Source: https://www.scisnack.com/2015/08/04/why-negative-feedback-is-good-for-the-climate/

Put contemporary climate change into the context of past, natural variability

'Aint nothing new under the sun,' King Solomon moaned in Ecclesiastes, and when it comes to a changing climate, the grumpy monarch was right. Climate change is not a modern phenomenon, and the Earth has previously experienced cycles of cooling and warming.

So what's all the fuss about then? Well, previous cycles of climate change have taken place over much greater periods of time (hundreds of thousands of years); the speed of change in the Earth's temperature over the past 200 years is unprecedented. Slower change has allowed the Earth to adapt, and feedbacks to kick into place. The current level of CO2 in the atmosphere is problematic because it is putting unusual stress on the Earth's natural ability to absorb CO2 and cool itself.

Review the evidence for human-induced climate change 

Since about 1750, the energy reaching the Earth from the sun has remained largely constant. However, the global average temperatures of the land and the sea have risen dramatically. Therefore, there must be an alternative explanation. As part of industrialisation, much of the world has been burning fossil fuels, releasing carbon that would otherwise have been released over a much greater timescale, if at all. This CO2, and other greenhouse gases, are adding layers to the blanket of gases around the Earth, letting less heat escape.
Sources: https://www.skepticalscience.com/empirical-evidence-for-global-warming.htm and https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ (two sources among many. Seriously, climate deniers, time to come up with a new excuse)

Explore the impacts of climate change on the cryosphere 

It's not called the cryosphere because of all those heart-rending pictures of polar bears floating around on pieces of ice so small you could stir them into your G&T; the cryosphere is the really, really, cold bits of the Earth, like Alaska, Antarctica and Theresa May's heart.

It is in the cryosphere that some of the effects of global warming are most apparent. Global warming is causing all of the following, to a greater or lesser degree: melting glaciers, shrinking sea ice and sea ice forming later in the year and for shorter periods of time, reduced albedo. The positive feedback of albedo means smaller ice sheets could accelerate global warming, resulting in melting of land ice, including the permafrost. Melting of the permafrost could provide another positive feedback because of the levels of methane stored in the frozen soils.
Source: https://serc.carleton.edu/eslabs/cryosphere/5b.html

Evaluate the vulnerability of the oceans to ‘the other carbon dioxide problem’ 

The oceans have absorbed much of the CO2 that has been released, both naturally and anthropogenically. This has been largely positive, because it has curtailed warming on the land, protecting us from some global warming.

However, the higher levels of CO2 have resulted in ocean acidification - climate change's noisy, troublesome and extremely irritating little brother, who is, basically, getting high on hydrogen ions and spoiling the party for everyone.

Carbon dioxide links with water and carbonate in the water to produce bicarbonate, reducing the availability of calcium carbonate in the water. This is having startling effects on marine life: marine creatures with shells or skeletons are finding it harder to get the calcium carbonate they need to form properly (so Nemo's probably OK but Sebastian, the amusing lobster from Little Mermaid, is in trouble). This is likely to have have ramifications higher up the food chain, including for human fish consumption.
Sources: https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/What+is+Ocean+Acidification%3F; https://www.eartheclipse.com/environment/causes-effects-solutions-of-ocean-acidification.html; http://www.epoca-project.eu/index.php/what-is-ocean-acidification.html

Discuss how scientists model future climate scenarios 

Scientists use a variety of methods - ice cores, tree rings, pollen, sediments and corals - to investigate what the climate was doing in the recent and distant past. To build climate models, climatologists feed data from known climate inputs (such as water vapour, sun radiation, CO2 levels) and run them using historical data. This enables them to see whether the modelling is a reliable prediction of future climate.

The unknown in this area is human activity. The number of humans there are and how much fossil fuel they burn will greatly determine the climate.

Reflect on the role humans are playing in changing the Earth system 

Higgledy piggledy
Gorging on fossil fuels
Making us hotter than
We rightly should be

Much of the warmth is caused
Anthropogenically
Which basically means
That the problem is me

Update: Nya Murray on the climate change course has compiled a much more comprehensive list of useful climate change links so thanks very much to her. 

Some of the links I've found useful on this course: 

• http://www.enviropedia.org.uk/ 
• http://anthropocene.info/tipping-elements.php 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgh3Obf4LeA 
• https://www.sciencealert.com/this-map-shows-the-parts-of-the-world-most-vulnerable-to-climate-change 
• http://www.climatehotmap.org/ 
• https://www.carbonbrief.org 
• http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/takeaction/ 
• https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-guide 
• https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/climate-change-27
• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-change
• https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/index.html

The hardest thing you'll ever learn is ... climate modelling

Credit: pixabay

1.
a) where is the final ice-edge? pass
b) what are the mean temperature and mean albedo? 15C and 0.31
c) what are the approximate temperatures at the pole and the equator? -15C and 0C
d) does this look like the real Earth? No, these temperatures are lower than the real Earth

2.
a) what is the mean temperature and albedo in the absence of heat transport? 9C and 0.34
b) at what K value does the model become completely ice-free? pass
c) what are the implications of this sensitivity to K with regard to variations in poleward heat transports (e.g. variations in the Gulf stream)? Is this realistic? pass

3.
a) By reducing the “Fraction of Solar Constant” in Run 1 determine the value at which the Earth becomes completed ice-covered. 0.88
b) Set the initial ice-edge to 0o (i.e. “Snowball Earth'”) and increase the solar constant from the value found in (a). At which value does the ice-sheet completely melt? 1.2
c) Set the initial ice-edge to 90o (i.e. ice-free Earth) and reduce the solar constant from the value found in (b). At which value does the ice begin to reappear? 0.88
d) Sketch phase diagrams of mean albedo versus fractional solar constant, and mean temperature versus fractional solar constant. Initialise Run 1 and Run 2 with ice-edges at 0o and 90o, and increase the solar constant values from 0.8 to 1.2 in steps of 0.05. Fill in the mean values of temperature and albedo in the workspace table at the bottom of the “Graphs” sheet. This will produce phase space diagrams below the table. Wow, a big jump (+60C) in temperature between 1.15 solar constant and 1.2
e) Given that the Sun was fainter in the past, what do these diagrams “predict” the current Earth state should be? What missing processes might resolve this “faint young Sun paradox”? The Earth should be cooler than it is. The missing process is the warming effect of CO2.

4.
a) What is the impact of doubling CO2 on global temperature and albedo? Mean temperature increases by 3.44604C and albedo decreases by 0.009162
b) Why does this differ from the T2x input parameter? Because this input parameter assumes 0 albedo
c) The global mean temperature is given by : = [ {1 - <>} – A] / B where =1370 fS / 4 is the mean incident solar radiation, <> is the mean albedo, and B=2.17 W m-2 oC-1. Derive a relation between the increment to the mean temperature due to albedo changes, Tsnow , and the albedo change itself, . Does this fit with the answers given in (a) and (b) above? pass
d) Now try 4xCO2 in Run 1. How large are the mean temperature and mean albedo changes in going from 2xCO2 to 4xCO2? Why are they lower than in (a)? Mean temperature increases by 2.00086 and albedo decreases by 0.000005.

Ocean acidification ... now that's gonna sting

Credit: pixabay

Into week three of my Future Learn/University of Exeter (which looks like such a wonderful place to study) course on Climate Change: The Science, and this week we've been looking at the oceans and wondering what those beautiful clownfish ever did to deserve what's being thrown at them, climatically speaking.

As I write this, I'm eating Raffaello chocolates from Ferrero Rocher, and wondering where all the plastic that consumes* them is going to end up.

"Ambassador, with these Ferrero Rocher you are really spoiling the ocean" 

OK, three questions to answer:

1) What is the effect of acidification on marine organisms? 

Now, marine organisms is quite a broad term. Big fish, little fish, probably a cardboard box or two as well.

So first, a quick explanation of ocean acidification (OA) as I understand it. Humans have been releasing a lot more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the past 200 years than the Earth has been accustomed to. About 30% of this has been absorbed by the oceans. This is good (at least in the short-term), as it has kept a rein on global warming on land.

However, the high levels of CO2 in the seas are causing a chemical shock for many of the creatures that live there. Mixing water and carbon dioxide allows carbonic acid to form. Acids release hydrogen ions. Hydrogen ions are flirtatious little sods and want to get hooked up with anything going. One of the things going is carbonate.

But carbonate is much in demand as marine organisms use it to make shells and skeletons. As carbonate heads off into the sunset with hydrogen ions, (in the form of biocarbonate), certain marine organisms are left feeling a little, well, naked. Lazy. Fed up. Basically they have to spend a lot more energy on making their shells, leaving less for eating, reproduction and growing properly. They mope, essentially.

One of the major problems is that a lot of these carbonate-dependent organisms are at the bottom of the food chain. If they become fewer in number, or smaller, that causes problems for marine organisms higher up the food chain. Fish people might care about a bit more, perhaps.

Other reported impacts of OA include reducing the smells, sights and sounds of the oceans, which can affect marine organisms' ability to find habitats and food, and escape predators.

I should point out that some marine organisms are likely to thrive in a CO2-richer environment. But it'll probably be the ugly ones, or the really rubbish ones that are essentially plants anyway, not the pretty tropical fish.

2) Are there any economic effects from your chosen impact? Which areas might be hit the hardest? 

Early days. In fact, the study of OA as a whole is rather nascent compared with other aspects of climate change. Heck, the Guardian doesn't even have a keyword for it yet! So direct economic impacts are hard to predict. However, fish is a vital source of protein for millions of people - constituting 70% of protein intake for some island and coastal countries, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Declining fishing stocks would have a severe impact on food security and on people working in the fishing industry. And some of those people - those who can afford it - will turn to meat as a protein source, and increasing meat demand could produce a positive feedback as many sources of meat (particularly cows) contribute to global warming (by farting and deforestation).

3) What’s the most effective solution to preventing your chosen impact? 

There is emerging evidence that growing more sea grass could help, by absorbing marine CO2. A bit like planting trees on land. Limiting consumption of affected species of fish by those who can, while not directly changing the pH balance of the sea, could allow those species under most stress a greater chance to adapt or recover. But, in a nutshell, we need to stop releasing so much CO2 into the atmosphere. Simples...

Additional sources: Simthsonian, WWF, NOAA

*OK, so it's actually me consuming them.

Climate change: in it for the long haul

Credit: pixabay

How does the climate vary naturally over millennial time scales?
Can contemporary climate change be explained by natural variations?
What is the evidence for climate change? 

1) Put simply, the climate gets warmer and cooler again, in its natural and delicate balancing act. The most obvious example of a climate feedback is the ice albedo feedback: larger ice cover reflects more radiation back to space, keeping it cooler. As ice cover decreases, more radiation is absorbed by the darker coloured water, and the temperature rises. Part of the reason for the Earth's changing climate over millennia are slight changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun.

2) The evidence for contemporary climate change exceeds the temperature ranges previously seen in natural variations, suggesting there must be another factor at play to explain the extremes we are seeing now. Data also suggest that the climate is changing at a much greater speed than previously seen in natural variations. The US Forest Service explains it succinctly:

"Climate varies without human influence, and this natural variation is a backdrop for the human-caused climate change occurring now" 

3) Some climate deniers would have you believe that the evidence for climate change is largely disputed, anecdotal and insubstantial. It isn't:

• rising sea levels
• decreasing ice cover
• rising levels of CO2 and other GHGs
• rising global average temperatures on land and sea

Sources: The Royal Society; Nasa; Inside Climate News

The past is a foreign country: they do climate differently there

Credit: pixabay  

What can we learn from the past? Is it important to know about the climate on timescales that are almost incomprehensible to our human lifespans?

Timescales give ammunition to climate deniers as they can say, 'we survived before and we'll survive again' (glossing over the fact that 'we' was very different then, and didn't include humans).

The fact that we know how extreme the PETM was, and there is still no global urgency to combat a warming planet, suggests the fear factor isn't working. I think most people in the developed world are aware of climate change but also know they will be protected from the worst effects of it by time (they'll be dead), location or money.

There have been a few comments (on the discussions boards of the University of Exeter's Climate Change: The Science course) damning politicians for a lack of action. I've nothing against damning politicians, but - while you can cite eco 'gestures' for most countries in the world - no country is leading on climate change - the inertia is terrifyingly widespread. This is no doubt partly because, again, of the timescales involved - election in four years' time vs data from 56 million years ago - but also because there is not one set of actions agreed upon that would halt climate change.

Somebody mentioned they felt switching their TV off standby was worthless in the face of massive industrial and leisure projects that guzzle energy and belch carbon. I think some politicians and countries also feel like that (it's certainly a theme that has emerged at previous climate talks) - why should I risk my political career/country's economy/unemployment stats if my neighbour consumes coal like it's jelly babies?

And green issues are so broad that it's difficult to ascertain what is specifically an action to limit - I don't think we can say prevent any more - global warming, and what is a more generalised environmentally friendly way of living. And people are full of contradictions - using a reusable coffee cup and flying lots; religiously recycling all their meat trays; driving to the organic supermarket in a diesel car.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet much in the threads is population. Part of the horrors of plastic are not simply because of plastic per se, but because of the sheer volumes of it that 7 billion people use. Same with greenhouse gases.

Technology is a way forward, perhaps the only way. People don't invent (or mass produce) a climate-saving device, such as compostable packaging, carbon capture and storage, solar panels, a TV that turns off automatically, until the demand is there. And when it comes to selling stuff, the world listens more to consumers than politicians.