Renewable Revolution

Professor Gerardo Cebellos is the lead author of the latest study on the evidence that we are in the Sixth Mass Extinction.

I prepared a post to counter Ashvin's view that concentrated feed operations are a bigger threat than CO2 pollution. I will post it here soon.

The point is that that meat eating is a subset of our unsustainable activity, not the proximate MAIN cause of environmental degradation.

We do have to switch to insect protein, of course. That's a no-brainer. But you are dreaming if you think that is going to stop the Sixth Mass Extinction in any significant way.

WHY?

Because there is a LOT more going on out there, due to the CO2 build up, that is contributing to the main cause of BOTH land and marine mammalian vertebrate species extinctions.

Yes, eliminating the concentrated animal feeding operations and all the crop land needed to raise food for them from the energy mix would reduce our CO2 emissions. So we must do that. But, if we don't go 100% renewable energy, it will not be enough to STOP the mass extinction going on now that threatens vertebrate mammals,  which we just happen to be, in particular. WE are destroying OUR habitat by burning fossil fuels, along with the habitat of countless other species.

Since Ashvin appears to have gone away for a while WITHOUT answering the question I asked him on the last post, I'll just post the abridged version of my post. I'll post the whole enchilada with references in an article when I get to it.  Enjoy the short version:

I am all for switching to insect protein powder for yummy hamburgers. I am all for putting wildlife corridors on all agricultural land where humans (biologist caretakers armed to deal with trespassing humans excluded) are not allowed and will be shot on sight with arrows and used for owl and eagle species recovery efforts.

We need to do that. We need to free range whatever animals we raise and we need to severely cut back on how many of them we raise. We need to make more efficient use of farmed animal droppings for the express purpose of totally eliminating chemical fertilizers.

But if we do all that BEFORE we address the CO2 problem, and continue to burn off present estimates of global carbon reserves, the wildlife extinction will accelerate, not slow down.

WHY?


THIS was February of 2013:
Another link between CO2 and mass extinctions of species

In February 2013, CO2 levels had risen to near 396.80ppm at Mauna Loa Atmospheric Observatory, compared to 393.54ppm in February 2012. This rise - 3.26ppm per year - is at the highest rate yet recorded. Further measurements show CO2 is at near 400ppm of the atmosphere over the Arctic. At this rate the upper stability threshold of the Antarctic ice sheet, defined at about 500–600ppm CO2 would be reached later this century (although hysteresis of the ice sheets may slow down melting).

Our global carbon reserves - including coal, oil, oil shale, tar sands, gas and coal-seam gas - contain considerably more than 10,000 billion tonnes of carbon (see Figure 5). This amount of carbon, if released into the atmosphere, is capable of raising atmospheric CO2 levels to higher than 1000ppm. Such a rise in atmospheric radiative forcing will be similar to that of the Paleocene-Eocene boundary thermal maximum (PETM), which happened about 55 million years-ago (see Figures 1, 2 and 4).

Ashvin, please digest the following sentence about the 3.26ppm per year rate referenced above.

But the rate of rise surpasses those of this thermal maximum by about ten times.

Now please look at this graphic:
Mass extinctions due to rapidly escalating levels of CO2 are recorded since as long as 580 million years ago. As our anthropogenic global emissions of CO2 are rising, at a rate for which no precedence is known from the geological record with the exception of asteroid impacts, another wave of extinctions is unfolding.

Ashvin, the most important issue of our time is the existential threat we face from CO2 pollution. The other empathy deficit disordered activites humans are foolishly, greedily and stupidly pursuing need to be addressed. Those activities produce habit a destruction.

But CO2 is the elephant in the high extinctions rate room.

The MOST negatively impacted areas of our biosphere (i. e. THE TROPICS from land deforestation and desertification and ocean acidification plus heat  MORE than from atmospheric temperature increase) from CO2 pollution are PRECISELY where the our biosphere's BIODIVERSITY is concentrated.









The evidence is clear. That is, along with the increase in CO2 ppm, the annual RATE of rise of annual CO2 is increasing too.

The most important issue of our time is the existential threat we face from CO2 pollution. That is causing far more habitat destruction than all the other unsustainable human activities.

CO2 is the elephant in the high extinctions rate room. If the above has not convinced you of that, I fear hard experience starting around 2040 will.