Too late to wait?

Global carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels set a record level in 2012, driven largely by rising demand in China and Japan's decision to phase out nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency. (U.S. emissions declined 3.8 percent, Europe by 1.4 percent.)

This prompted the IEA's chief economist, Fatih Birol, to warn that the planet risks eclipsing a goal of containing global temperature increase to 3.6 degrees F above pre-industrial levels. This is regarded as a safety limit beyond which global warming is likely to become catastrophic.

Birol said the world risks hitting a temperature increase of 9 degrees F if it chooses to wait for a new climate treaty. Intead, he said, nations must take action now to control carbon emissions.

 

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Coffee makes you crazy

I did something about a month ago that I never thought would enter my mind as a possibility. I gave up coffee. Pretty much cold turkey.

Now comes a determination by the American Psychiatric Association that caffeine withdrawal is an actual mental illness. It has been officially listed as such in their professional bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

They don't mean withdrawal that results from giving something up. They mean the symptoms a caffeine addict experiences whenever the customary caffeine level in their system declines. Such as around noon, after the morning cuppa wears off. Or when you get home from work, when the afternoon pick 'em up cuppa is hours behind you.

If you drink more than two or three cups of coffee a day, you may experience withdrawal symptoms including headaches, grumpiness, trouble sleeping and difficulty focusing. Also:

People with this level of intoxication will show five or more of the following symptoms: restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, flushed face, diuresis, gastrointestinal disturbance, twitching, rambling thought or speech, tachycardia, arrhythmia, periods of inexhaustibly, or psychomotor agitation.

I gave up coffee after more than 25 years because I began to notice it was affecting my mood and my sleep. My addiction also affect my habits. For instance, on short dayhiking trips I would go to great lengths to bring along the necessary gear to be sure I could prepare a cup of hot joe on the trail. And I often had to mold my work schedule around that afternoon cup.

Frankly, I didn't think I could live without coffee. But the quitting process was surprisingly easy. There was only one hard day, about two or three days after I quit, when it felt like my system "crashed." I was in a kind of stupor, incapable of much activity or focused thought. But the very next day, I was fine.

I must note that I did not give up caffeine entirely, only coffee. I now drink mostly green tea, which has about a third as much caffeine.

This is all relevant because climate change may wipe out Arabica beans, which account for 70 percent of Earth's coffee production. So as I see it, the sooner we humans can wean ourselves of this addiction, the better off we'll be. I never thought I'd say that.

My stuff: Climate change may wipe out 82% of native CA fish

That includes numerous species of salmon. By contrast, only 19 percent of nonnative fishes will be lost.

"We'll be making choices," says Peter Moyle of UC Davis. "Either we have these species around for the future, or we don't."

Published in The Sacramento Bee on May 31, 2013.

 

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Solar energy breakthrough?

Maryland inventor Ronald Ace claims to have made a breakthrough in solar thermal energy generation that could eliminate mankind's dependence on fossil fuels. The "solar trap" design is promising because Ace claims it captures nearly 100 percent of the sun's energy, which no other technology has even come close to achieving. Details are sketchy, but expert reviews are underway and a patent has been filed.

 

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Troubling milestone

Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has reached 400 parts per million. The last time it was this high, humans did not yet exist as a species.

 

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Digging a deeper hole

Justin Gillis of the NY Times reported yesterday that global carbon emissions jumped 5.9 percent in 2010, the biggest increase ever recorded. This dashed any hopes that smaller increases during the Great Recession years were a sign humanity had somehow spontaneously and collectively adopted greener habits.

A couple quick facts from the report:

-- Coal consumption accounted for half the increase.
-- US emissions increased 4 percent, China 10.4 percent.
-- Developing countries accounted for 57 percent of the emissions, but emissions per person are much higher in developed nations.

Takeaway message: Don't count on economic trouble, or somebody else, to fix the climate change problem.

Where we stand

Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe climate change is happening, according to this May 2011 Yale survey. They differ sharply about the cause, though the largest group, 47 percent, believes climate change is caused by human activity.

A more recent Reuters/Ipsos poll in September found that 83 percent of Americans believe climate change is occurring, an increase from 75 percent a year earlier.

Yet for various reasons - economic and political - we can't seem to do anything about it.

Any real solutions would require big changes in how we conduct business in this country, and likely some big changes in habit for all of us.

In the meantime, greenhouse gasses continue to accumulate, climate change accelerates, and we sit back while the weather becomes more unpredictable, natural disasters mount and a real fix gets farther out of reach.

What we can all do now is start adapting to climate change, both as individuals and as communities.

Governments at all levels give little attention to this need for adaptation. Are we building levees high enough, planning urban growth appropriately, setting aside emergency funds, thinking about future food supplies? Are your family, your property, your finances and your neighborhood ready?

Let's agree to disagree about the causes of climate change. For now. I'm here to talk about what we can all agree to do now, and that's begin to adapt.

Welcome to the Adaptivator.