"Incorporating wood sawdust and chips into field soils stimulates fungal growth. In particular, incorporation of hardwood material resulted in rapid and long-term stimulation of fungal filamentous growth. The fungi that develop are not the wood rot basidiomycetes found in forests but ascomycetes (sac fungi) that have easy access to the cellulose polymers in shredded wood."

"Stimulating fungi through wood addition fits well with more sustainable agriculture. It suppresses plant pathogenic fungi and the excess nitrogen, which might otherwise wash out, is captured by the fungi. It also increases the overall diversity of soil life by providing fungal-eating soil creatures with a food source."

nioo.knaw.nl/en/news/the-hidde…

#Fungi #Microbes #Soil #Environment #Nature #Science #Biodiversity #FungiFriday

The hidden world of wood-decaying fungi

Of all the components of dead plants, wood is the hardest to break down. How come fungi know how to do this? What issues did they need to solve to achieve this? The Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) tries to find answers to these questions…

^nioo.knaw.nl

What is "Amoc" and why is it so important?
_________________________________________

The dangers of a collapse of the main Atlantic Ocean circulation, known as Amoc, have been “greatly underestimated” and would have devastating and irreversible impacts, according to an open letter released by 44 experts from 15 countries.

There are indications that Amoc has been slowing down for the last 60 or 70 years due to global heating. The most ominous sign is the cold blob over the northern Atlantic. The region is the only place in the world that has cooled in the past 20 years or so, while everywhere else on the planet has warmed – a sign of reduced heat transport into that region, exactly what climate computer models have predicted in response to Amoc slowing as a result of greenhouse gas emissions.

Another indicator is a reduction in the salt content of seawater. In the cold blob region, salinity is at its lowest level since measurements began 120 years ago. This is probably linked to Amoc slowing down and bringing less salty water and heat from the subtropics.

It is an amplifying feedback: as Amoc gets weaker, the oceans gets less salty, and as the oceans gets less salty, then Amoc gets weaker. At a certain point this becomes a vicious cycle which continues by itself until Amoc has died, even if we stop pushing the system with further emissions.

The big unknown here – the billion-dollar question – is how far away this tipping point is. It is very difficult to answer because the process is non-linear and would be triggered by subtle differences in salinity, which in turn depend on amounts of rainfall and cloud cover over the ocean as well as Greenland melting rates. These are hard to model accurately in computers so there is a big uncertainty relating to when the tipping point will be reached.
_________________________________________

FULL ARTICLE -- theguardian.com/environment/20…

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

As the UK shut down it's final Coal burning power station yesterday, I see that XKCD celebrated it with a calculation.

So we burned about 3 inches in depth of the UK's surface between 1853 and 2024 😲

xkcd.com/2992/

#xkcd #coal #environment

Human composting should be a third option after burial and cremation.

My wife, Tui Davidson, spent her volunteer energy to provide a not-for-profit funeral service for Canberra. Five years later, they are a successful operation.

On Thursday, I was honoured and proud to attend her graduation from a social entrepreneur course called GRIST from Mill House Ventures. Earthly Remains is her human composting initiative and, as well as working with partners to develop the technology, she is lobbying the ACT government to create legislation to allow it, as 13 US states have done.

The GRIST program supported the creation of a short video which explains it better than I can.

She is also looking to collect data about community attitudes and would appreciate your input on a survey found at the website below.

earthlyremains.com.au/

#HumanComposting #environment #climate #cremation #burial #NaturalOrganicReduction #death #canberra

We know — and our rulers certainly know — that if we are to have any hope of preserving even a limited version of today’s complex modern society, greenhouse gas emissions MUST go down, swiftly and urgently.

But instead, emissions continue going up and up and up. It is literally suicidal.

So, WHY haven't we stopped burning fossil fuels?

Because there are profits to be made. Huge, massive, irresistibly tempting profits.

In a sane world, these actions would be seen as criminal.

Perpetrators like fossil fuel executives, their financiers, and the politicians who enable them, would be arrested, charged, tried, and convicted, with assets forfeited to pay for mitigation and reparations.

But we do not live in a sane world.

#Politics #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateJustice #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #Degrowth

This & similar cartoons often pop up on social media.... but that doesn't make them any less telling about our political leaders current & continuing attitudes to climate change.

So here it is again; our short-term thinking will be the end of us

#climate #environment #politics

The new Starbucks CEO, Brian Niccol, is going to commute to the office 3 days a week by private jet.

Don't forget to take your reusable cup to the coffee shop!

#climate #ClimateCollapse #environment #EatTheRich

edition.cnn.com/2024/08/23/bus…

Roger Hallam is one of the founders of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, and a leader in the fight against global climate change. I would like you to read this statement he posted yesterday… 🧵1/4
_______________________

I've just been sentenced to 5 years in prison.

The longest ever for nonviolent action.

The 'crime'?

Giving a talk on civil disobedience as an effective, evidence-based method for stopping the elite from putting enough carbon in the atmosphere to send us to extinction.

I have given hundreds of similar speeches encouraging nonviolent action and have never been arrested for it. This time I was an advisor to the M25 motorway disruption, recommending the action to go ahead to wake up the British public to societal collapse.

I was not part of the planning or action itself.

In the trial, I swore before God to tell the truth. The truth is the science. The science is clear. We're heading for billions of deaths and ecological collapse. To prove this, I presented the jury with a 250-page dossier of leading scientists' research as evidence in my defence. This was denied by the judge as an invalid - climate science is now illegal in the British courtroom.

I then began to speak about the apocalyptic conditions humanity faces - floods, wildfires, mass heat deaths - and was silenced by the judge. He sent out the jury and threatened to arrest me if I didn't stop. Instead, I stayed in the dock and argued that until I was given the right to complete my defence – I would not move. Even the prosecution tried to argue in my defence and the judge let me continue.

When the jury had shuffled in again, I spoke about the legal concept of “equality of arms” – that as the prosecution had had a right to lay facts over a whole week, I also wanted an equal opportunity. I spoke of various cases where juries had acquitted defendants when they had heard the facts, such as the Extinction Rebellion cracking of Shell's windows in 2018 as a reasonable action against criminal destruction. The Dutch Supreme Court has even said that all governments have a legal obligation to prevent the emission of greenhouse gases. Whilst the prosecution accepted that emissions pose an existential threat, for the first time in British history no less, they still tried to convict us for public nuisance rather than praise us for trying to stop those emissions. Given the objectivity of existential threat, there were overwhelming grounds to be involved in a plan to cause some disruption to the M25.

In the British law on public nuisance, there is a ‘reasonable excuse’ clause. Science says there is an overwhelming threat to my life, my children, you and your children. To argue there is not a reasonable excuse directly defies the wish of this legislation. Things are happening that cause harm – people are engaged in physical acts to stop that harm – it doesn’t matter whether it’s a protest or not.

As I began to offer up some case law, the judge kept intervening telling me I was “wasting my time” and ordering the jury to disregard me. To illustrate that I was not talking about my motivations but speaking about real necessity, I referred to a famous case over a decision to operate on conjoined twins with the likelihood that one would die. In this dilemma, I quoted the 19th Century principle that the action was necessary if the threat faced was inevitable and irrevocable, that no more should be done than essential, and that it must be proportionate. I argued that there was a “duress of circumstances” including the objective danger I’ve experienced as a farmer unable to grow food, and the global significance of “food insecurity” – a euphemism for famine and starvation.

There has never been a moment in history where ‘necessity’ has been more supported by objective facts – more than 10,000 scientific and peer-reviewed papers, indicating an outcome of mass starvation and death from man-made climate collapse.

In response, Judge Hehir called for an early lunch and dismissed the jury. He turned to me and warned that I wasn't a lawyer and that “this is not the Roger Hallam show”.

He then gave me just 15 more minutes to put forward my “beliefs” - a totally fucking incoherent statement. This isn’t belief - it’s the objective threat of destruction of property and livelihoods of billions of people and the secondary effects of famine i.e. war, rape, and torture.
_______________________

That's Part 1 of 4. Read the next below...

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice

Pledges coming from proprietary software companies mean nothing

theverge.com/2024/5/15/2415749…

Get behind the community that is _really_ fighting to curb climate change:

eco.kde.org/get-involved

@kde@lemmy.kde.social

#ecology #environment #emissions #microsoft

🗺️ 𝘖𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘔𝘢𝘱 3𝘋 🧊

demo.f4map.com

Zoom in to street level to see the 3D features.

#map #maps #OpenStreetMap #3D #topography #world #WorldMap #cities #landscape #environment #data #tools #OpenSource #FOSS

Imagine a world where you work three or four days a week. In your free time, you play sports, spend time with loved ones, garden, and engage with local politics.

Overnight shipping, advertising, and private jets no longer exist, but health care, education, and clean electricity are free and available to all.

“The Growing Popularity of Degrowth”

See -- grist.org/looking-forward/the-…

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Degrowth

The growing popularity of degrowth - Grist

Excerpts from a Q&A with bestselling degrowth author Kohei Saito.

^Grist

Explore IBM Design’s approach to designing for sustainability -- link to PDF white paper including design checklist for sustainability 🌎

ibm.com/design/practices/desig…

#IBM #design #UIDesign #sustainability #environment #goGreen

Snowless winter in Himalayas – another sign of climate change

Lack of snow could mean water shortages for millions across Asia

rfa.org/english/news/environme…

#MassExtinction #pollution #ecology #environment #climate #Himalayas

Snowless winter in Himalayas – another sign of climate change

Lack of snow could mean water shortages for millions across Asia.

^{By Subel Rai Bhandari and Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan (Radio Free Asia)}

Biomasakr ve Stamine, streda 19h.

Toz kdo zna Staminu, tak ho neprekvapi, ze plisen nakonec vyhrala.

A hle, nebyla to plisen, ale repka! Melo se jednat o dokument propagujici Teslu, ktery hrde zaplatili vlastnici Tesly z cele republiky.

Misto toho vidime prerod zgreenwashovaneho majitele Tesly na jejiho zaryteho odpurce. Autori dostali od teslistu pres drzku, ale stalo to za to!

Zajdete do kina. Muzu jenom doporucit!

lbc:b:50.765609:15.052277

#liberec #lbc #film #environment

A large group of scientists has collaborated to produce the "2023 State of the Climate" report. And guess what, it's not pretty...
_________________________

Life on planet Earth is under siege. We are now in an uncharted territory.

For several decades, scientists have consistently warned of a future marked by extreme climatic conditions because of escalating global temperatures caused by ongoing human activities that release harmful greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, time is up. We are seeing the manifestation of those predictions as an alarming and unprecedented succession of climate records are broken, causing profoundly distressing scenes of suffering to unfold. We are entering an unfamiliar domain regarding our climate crisis, a situation no one has ever witnessed firsthand in the history of humanity.

In the present report, we display a diverse set of vital signs of the planet and the potential drivers of climate change and climate-related responses. The trends reveal new all-time climate-related records and deeply concerning patterns of climate-related disasters. At the same time, we report minimal progress by humanity in combating climate change.

Given these distressing developments, our goal is to communicate climate facts and policy recommendations to scientists, policymakers, and the public. It is the moral duty of scientists and our institutions to clearly alert humanity of any potential existential threat and to show leadership in taking action.

The effects of global warming are progressively more severe, and possibilities such as a worldwide societal breakdown are feasible and dangerously underexplored. By the end of this century, an estimated 3 to 6 billion individuals — approximately one-third to one-half of the global population — might find themselves confined beyond the livable region, encountering severe heat, limited food availability, and elevated mortality rates because of the effects of climate change.

Big problems need big solutions. Therefore, we must shift our perspective on the climate emergency from being just an isolated environmental issue to a systemic, existential threat. Although global heating is devastating, it represents only one aspect of the escalating and interconnected environmental crisis that we are facing (e.g., biodiversity loss, fresh water scarcity, pandemics). We need policies that target the underlying issues of ecological overshoot where the human demand on Earth's resources results in overexploitation of our planet and biodiversity decline.

To address the overexploitation of our planet, we challenge the prevailing notion of endless growth and overconsumption by rich countries and individuals as unsustainable and unjust. Instead, we advocate for reducing resource overconsumption; reducing, reusing, and recycling waste in a more circular economy; and prioritizing human flourishing and sustainability. We emphasize climate justice and fair distribution of the costs and benefits of climate action, particularly for vulnerable communities. We call for a transformation of the global economy to prioritize human well-being and to provide for a more equitable distribution of resources.
_________________________

It's wonderful to see these scientists boldly calling for system change in the face of a planetary overshoot emergency. Now if only someone will listen...

FULL REPORT -- academic.oup.com/bioscience/ad…

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Degrowth

If you're an #EU citizen, I strongly encourage you to take a look and consider signing this European Citizen's Initiative (ECI) that calls for the establishment of a #tax on great #wealth to fund a just ecological and social transition: citizens-initiative.europa.eu/…

Boosts very welcome.

#environment #policy #taxation #TaxTheRich

For those who haven’t seen it before, here is my review of The Climate Book, by Greta Thunberg…
____________________________

I've read dozens of books about climate change, and this one is easily the best. It's packed with information, written to be accessible for anyone from high school (or a bright middle school student) on up, and most importantly it does NOT shy away from the true severity of our situation and the imperative need not only for individual action but for system change.

It's stunning to me that a young woman who just turned twenty years old was able to pull together such a massive project — coordinating the submissions of more than a hundred scientists, activists, and educators — while also writing a large part of the content herself. A truly amazing accomplishment.

This essential work should be in every school library and in every home. It will remain relevant for years to come, I believe, because although there certainly is plenty of data, mostly it's about *ideas* which will never age.
____________________________

bookwyrm.social/user/BreadAndC…

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #CO2 #Emissions #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice

I like this; any used it?

kualo — Green Web Hosting

kualo.co.uk/webhosting/green-w…

#goGreen #environment

Green Eco Web Hosting Powered by Renewable Energy | Kualo

Web hosting should be eco and green, not mean! Find out why it's so important to choose a host who uses 100% renewable energy.

^{Kualo Web Hosting}

A message from Greta Thunberg (@gretathunberg)...
_________________________

School strike, week 251.

Today, I graduate from school, which means I’ll no longer be able to school strike for the climate. This is then the last school strike for me, so I guess I have to write something on this day.

When I started striking in 2018 I could never have expected that it would lead to anything. After striking every day for three weeks, we were a small group of children who decided to continue doing this every Friday. And we did, which is how Fridays For Future was formed.

Some more people joined, and quite suddenly this was a global movement growing every day. During 2019, millions of youth striked from school for the climate, flooding the streets in over 180 countries. When the pandemic started, we had to find new ways to protest.

With time, we started to get back on the streets again. We’re still here, and we aren’t planning on going anywhere. Much has changed since we started, and yet we have much further to go.

We are still moving in the wrong direction, where those in power are allowed to sacrifice marginalised and affected people and the planet in the name of greed, profit and economic growth. They continue to destabilise the biosphere and our life supporting systems. We’re rapidly approaching potential nonlinear ecological and climatic tipping points beyond our control.

And in so many parts of the world, we are even speeding up the process. There are probably many of us who graduate who now wonder what kind of future it is that we are stepping into, even though we did not cause this crisis.

We who can speak up have a duty to do so. In order to change everything, we need everyone. I’ll continue to protest on Fridays, even though it’s not technically “school striking”. We simply have no other option than to do everything we possibly can. The fight has only just begun.
_________________________

🤗 💚

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice

We can have one of two things — but not both.

We can either have a society that tolerates millionaires and billionaires polluting the planet and destroying the biosphere. Or we can have a planet with a healthy biosphere but with fewer millionaires and no billionaires at all.

This is from a recently published peer-reviewed scientific paper titled “Millionaire Spending Incompatible with 1.5 C Ambitions”...
______________________

Much evidence suggests that the wealthiest individuals contribute disproportionately to climate change. Here we study the implications of a continued growth in the number of millionaires for emissions, and its impact on the depletion of the remaining carbon budget to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

Our findings suggest that the share of millionaires in the world population will grow from 0.7% today to 3.3% in 2050, and cause accumulated emissions equivalent to 72% of the remaining carbon budget. This significantly reduces the chance of stabilizing climate change at 1.5°C.

The concentration of wealth at the top means that a significant share of the remaining carbon budget to 1.5°C is depleted by a very small share of humanity. This comparably small group is also likely to invest its wealth in ways that further increase emissions.

Continued growth in emissions at the top makes a low-carbon transition less likely, as the acceleration of energy consumption by the wealthiest is likely beyond the system's capacity to decarbonize. To this end, we question whether policy designs such as progressive taxes targeting the high emitters will be sufficient.
______________________

Like I said, we can have one thing or the other — but not both.

READ THE PAPER --sciencedirect.com/science/arti…

#Politics #Capitalism #Inequality #CO2 #Emissions #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice

This ancient goat willow is half-tree, half-octopus!

It may have been broken by a Cumbrian storm, but is still very much alive - and supporting lots of other life too. One of my favourite trees 💚

#ThickTrunkTuesday #nature #woodland #environment #Mosstodon #Cumbria #LakeDistrict

Learn about software-driven #environmental harm and how to combat it with #FreeSoftware!

Come to 📍 Room AW1.126 (#energy devroom) at #FOSDEM from 🕟 16:30-17 (CET).

Or 🖥️ watch online.

More information here: fosdem.org/2023/schedule/event…

#KDE #KDEEco #BE4FOSS #FEEP #FOSS #OpenSource #sustainability #environment #ecology

"What Lies Ahead", a painting I created at the beginning of 2020. Feels like a lifetime ago.

#MastoArt #DigitalPainting #DigitalArt #Illustration #Art #Anime #Landscape #Environment

This cartoon hits hard.

It hits even harder when you notice the 2007 publication date in the lower right corner.

#climate #environment #nature #COP15 #COP27 #sustainability #PredatoryDelay

This comic hits home, but when you see the 2007 publishing date in the lower right hand corner it hits even harder.

#climate #nature #sustainability #environment

Little photo study from a while ago...

used photo: Beach by Tony George on Flickr

#photostudy #digitalart #landscape #environment #beach #rock #gameart

#KDE #software is many things: free, beautiful, performant, customizable. How about all of that plus #sustainable?

KDE adopts #SustainableSoftware as one of 3 overarching goals to focus on!

> Software has an impact on our future. It has an affect on #energy and #resource usage. KDE can deliver software which does this in a way which preserves #environment and society for us and future generations.

community.kde.org/Goals/Sustai…

#KDEEco #BE4FOSS #FEEP #FOSS #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #ClimateCrisis

📣 Awesome #Job Alert!!! 📣 (boosts appreciated)

We're hiring.

We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer for #Terraso. Full remote work on an #opensource project with a mission to help landscape communities organize for the #environment and #SustainableDevelopment.

In the coming months we're building #mapping, #DataCollection and learning tools.

Honestly its such a cool project. Every day I go to work with wonderful people and try to save the world. Come work with me.

Check it out! jobs.lever.co/TechMatters/cea5…

Also learn more:
- terraso.org
- landscapes.global

Tech Matters - Senior Software Engineer, Terraso

Tech Matters is seeking a senior software engineer to help build the Terraso platform, an open source project delivering critical software tools to empower communities around the world to adopt sustainable practices addressing the climate change cris…

^{jobs.lever.co}

The link between climate change and serious and organised crime is complex. On one hand, criminals infiltrate legal businesses and organisations aimed at protecting the environment. On the other hand, criminal activities such as wildlife trafficking and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, but also illicit drug production, counterfeiting of goods, and several types of fraud have direct and indirect
environmental impacts

europol.europa.eu/publications… #ClimateEmergency #pollution #environment