Climate crisis system: reduce sources, increase sinks, ACT!

There are others who find hopeful elements in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released this past Monday. Rebecca Solnit, writing  for The Guardian, is one of them. She notes:

The IPCC’s latest climate report is dire. But it also included some prospects for hope

Or as the report itself put it, on p. 120 of the fifth section:

Deliberate removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere could reverse … some aspects of climate change. However, this will only happen … if deliberate removals are larger than emissions. Some climate change trends, such as the increase in global surface temperature, would start to reverse within a few years. Other aspects … would take decades (e.g., permafrost thawing) or centuries (e.g., acidification of the deep ocean) to reverse, and some, such as sea level rise, would take centuries to millennia to change direction. 

There are also those who are concerned about the possibility that the urgency of addressing our climate crisis will get watered down by "world leaders.” That’s why, yesterday, The  Guardian published

Greenhouse gas emissions must peak within 4 years, says leaked UN report 

That article, however, concludes with this observation

The IPCC said it did not comment on leaks, and the purpose of the drafting process was to give the scientists time and peace to develop their assessment without external comment. Jonathan Lynn, head of communications at the IPCC, said: “Much of the text cited here – apparently from the first version of the summary for policymakers in the Working Group III second order draft circulated to governments and expert reviewers in January – has already changed in the latest internal draft of the summary for policymakers now being reviewed by authors.”

reduce food waste, compost it

Photo by J. Harrington

In any event, there are a number of ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that have additional benefits and can, at least in part, be done by most of US. Those solutions are listed by sector at Project Drawdown. The table below was taken from the Drawdown web site after we resorted it to place the most significant reductions at the top. The top three are, or should be, actions available to every family and person on the Earth, augmented by organizations making comparable adaptations. [Just one week ago, we posted in detail about what makes for plant-rich diets.]

* Gigatons CO2 Equivalent Reduced / Sequestered (2020–2050)

Solution	Sector(s)	Scenario 1 *	Scenario 2 *
Reduced Food Waste	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	90.70	101.71
Health and Education	Health and Education	85.42	85.42
Plant-Rich Diets	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	65.01	91.72
Refrigerant Management	Industry / Buildings	57.75	57.75
Tropical Forest Restoration	Land Sinks	54.45	85.14
Onshore Wind Turbines	Electricity	47.21	147.72
Alternative Refrigerants	Industry / Buildings	43.53	50.53
Utility-Scale Solar Photovoltaics	Electricity	42.32	119.13
Improved Clean Cookstoves	Buildings	31.34	72.65
Distributed Solar Photovoltaics	Electricity	27.98	68.64
Silvopasture	Land Sinks	26.58	42.31
Peatland Protection and Rewetting	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	26.03	41.93
Tree Plantations (on Degraded Land)	Land Sinks	22.24	35.94
Temperate Forest Restoration	Land Sinks	19.42	27.85
Concentrated Solar Power	Electricity	18.60	23.96
Insulation	Electricity / Buildings	16.97	19.01
Managed Grazing	Land Sinks	16.42	26.01
LED Lighting	Electricity	16.07	17.53
Perennial Staple Crops	Land Sinks	15.45	31.26
Tree Intercropping	Land Sinks	15.03	24.40
Regenerative Annual Cropping	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	14.52	22.27
Conservation Agriculture	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	13.40	9.43
Abandoned Farmland Restoration	Land Sinks	12.48	20.32
Electric Cars	Transportation	11.87	15.68
Multistrata Agroforestry	Land Sinks	11.30	20.40
Offshore Wind Turbines	Electricity	10.44	11.42
High-Performance Glass	Electricity / Buildings	10.04	12.63
Methane Digesters	Electricity / Industry	9.83	6.18
Improved Rice Production	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	9.44	13.82
Indigenous Peoples’ Forest Tenure	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	8.69	12.93
Bamboo Production	Land Sinks	8.27	21.31
Alternative Cement	Industry	7.98	16.10
Hybrid Cars	Transportation	7.89	4.63
Carpooling	Transportation	7.70	4.17
Public Transit	Transportation	7.51	23.36
Smart Thermostats	Electricity / Buildings	6.99	7.40
Building Automation Systems	Electricity / Buildings	6.47	10.48
District Heating	Electricity / Buildings	6.28	9.85
Efficient Aviation	Transportation	6.27	9.18
Geothermal Power	Electricity	6.19	9.85
Forest Protection	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	5.52	8.75
Recycling	Industry	5.50	6.02
Biogas for Cooking	Buildings	4.65	9.70
Efficient Trucks	Transportation	4.61	9.71
Efficient Ocean Shipping	Transportation	4.40	6.30
High-Efficiency Heat Pumps	Electricity / Buildings	4.16	9.29
Perennial Biomass Production	Land Sinks	4.00	7.04
Solar Hot Water	Electricity / Buildings	3.59	14.29
Grassland Protection	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	3.35	4.25
System of Rice Intensification	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	2.78	4.26
Nuclear Power	Electricity	2.65	3.23
Bicycle Infrastructure	Transportation	2.56	6.65
Biomass Power	Electricity	2.52	3.57
Nutrient Management	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use	2.34	12.06
Biochar Production	Engineered Sinks	2.22	4.39
Landfill Methane Capture	Electricity / Industry	2.18	-1.60
Composting	Industry	2.14	3.13
Waste-to-Energy	Electricity / Industry	2.04	3.00
Small Hydropower	Electricity	1.69	3.28
Walkable Cities	Transportation	1.44	5.45
Ocean Power	Electricity	1.38	1.38
Sustainable Intensification for Smallholders	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	1.36	0.68
Electric Bicycles	Transportation	1.31	4.07
High-Speed Rail	Transportation	1.30	3.77
Farm Irrigation Efficiency	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use	1.13	2.07
Recycled Paper	Industry	1.10	1.95
Telepresence	Transportation	1.05	3.80
Coastal Wetland Protection	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Coastal and Ocean Sinks	0.99	1.45
Coastal Wetland Restoration	Coastal and Ocean Sinks	0.99	1.01
Bioplastics	Industry	0.96	3.80
Low-Flow Fixtures	Electricity / Buildings	0.91	1.56
Water Distribution Efficiency	Electricity	0.66	0.94
Green and Cool Roofs	Electricity / Buildings	0.60	1.10
Dynamic Glass	Electricity / Buildings	0.29	0.47
Electric Trains	Transportation	0.10	0.65
Micro Wind Turbines	Electricity	0.09	0.13
Building Retrofitting	Electricity / Buildings
Net-Zero Buildings	Electricity / Buildings
Grid Flexibility	Electricity
Microgrids	Electricity
Distributed Energy Storage	Electricity
Utility-Scale Energy Storage	Electricity
		1000.64	1583.62

We know what to do and how to do it. Now we need to give our governments permission and courage to say, at COP 26, “Make it so!”

My Species

By Jane Hirshfield

even

a small purple artichoke

boiled

in its own bittered

and darkening

waters

grows tender,

grows tender and sweet

patience, I think,

my species

keep testing the spiny leaves

the spiny heart

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