W_Lucht

W_Lucht, 3 months ago to random

There was a cautiously spring-like vibe in the air in front of the institute today (1st pic) and along the water this weekend (2nd pic). Or is it just me?

All speaks of days getting longer.
I think.

A low Sun reflects from the surface of a very still large water surface reaching to a far shore in some distance. The sky is mostly overcast with some structures of cloud. In the foreground, a few barren shrubs and grasses extend their stems over the water. It's winterly, but not any more fully so, all speaks of days getting longer.

W_Lucht, 3 months ago to Finland

#Finland has elected a new president today and voted for its entry to the #ESC yesterday.

But one would have thought that the alarming study on breakdown of Atlantic Ocean circulation this century with enormous consequences in the European North would have made dramatic headlines.

But public broadcaster YLE had just a very generic, merely reporting story. Helsingin Sanomat had nothing, as far as I can tell.

It shows how we're still asleep on climate breakdown. It's the same everywhere.

The headline in a rather unalarmed report by Finland's public broadcaster YLE reads (in Finnish): "Weakening of key ocean currents in the Atlantic could lead to climate catastrophe, scientists warn. Predicting the Atlantic thermohaline cycle is difficult. Now scientists have created a model that predicts how the fading AMOC would affect the weather."

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

This is not funny.
It's not just another news story, to be scrolled past.
It's (another) call for 👉 far-reaching immediate action. Anyone listening?

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adk1189

CNN titles "Critical Atlantic Ocean system is showing early signs of collapse, prompting warning from scientists"
The Washington Post titles "Why this is one of the planners shifts scientists are most worried about"
Newsweek titles "Atlantic ocean's circulation could collapse"

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

My colleague @Rahmstorf, a pioneer and leading expert in the field, has written an excellent explanation - I highly recommend it - on the new study published this evening on the breakdown (tipping) of the Atlantic ocean's circulation.

The findings are in line with previous work but make it much more certain. They're very scary.

"... northern Europe ... would suffer devastating impacts ... leading to a completely different climate within a decade or two" after tipping.

https://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2024/02/new-study-suggests-the-atlantic-overturning-circulation-amoc-is-on-tipping-course/

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

Have I my mentioned how totally awesome @organicmaps's new "Outdoors map style" is - a mode that highlights tracks and trails?! It's absolutely splendid, and - in my area at least - amazingly accurate even for small paths (built on OSM).

By the way: #OrganicMaps is fully offline, requires no registration, has no ads, no tracking - and works very well. So it depends on donations, like the fediverse does! Use and support them if you value it! Haven't used invasive Google maps & co in a decade.

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to climate

Yeah!!! Michael Mann won! 👍👍

"Michael Mann, a prominent #climate scientist, won his long-standing legal battle against two right-wing bloggers who claimed that he manipulated data in his research."

"A jury in a civil trial in Washington on Thursday ... awarded him more than $1 million."

“'I hope this verdict sends a message that falsely attacking climate scientists is not protected speech,' Mann said in a statement."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/02/08/michael-mann-bloggers-defamation-trial/

@rahmstorf

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

A decent article on record climate heating.
I made the mistake of looking at the comments.

The 1st claimed every weather event is being hyped.
The 2nd said we won't change human nature.
The 3rd said we're doomed bc of politics.
The 4th agreed it's all the politician's fault.
Then a few better ones.
Then: it's all population growth.
Then: a complaint that insurance costs are rising.
Then: let's all not grumble, start preparing.

I didn't read the other 728 comments. 🤣
#StateOfHumanity

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

2023 has passed. So I guess it's ok to share a secret project I pursued all last year. I also have a secret project this year.

I'm still surprised - after working on it for 2-3 months, mostly around midnight after long days at work, I actually mastered circular breathing.

I seek the deep, low didgeridoo sound. They're a bit more difficult to play. But very satisfying.

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

Next to GHG emissions, agriculture is the major cause for transgression of #PlanetaryBoundaries, critical to #Earth's stability. 💥

But #farmers are joining the backlash against the EU's #GreenDeal and national environmental regulations: demanding fossil subsidies, curbing of nature restoration, limits to animal welfare and less regulation of nitrogen pollution and pesticides.

Do farmers expect to win an economic race to the bottom? More exploitation is not the answer. It's not sustainable. 🤔

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

Also #Anthropocene: I suspect in 10 years' time it'll be a daily occurrence for us to provide much more sophisticated proof online that we're a human and not a machine. Right now AI is still being trained with actual content (a gigantic privacy issue in itself). But soon AI will train itself with already AI-generated stuff + targeted false content. Nobody will know what to trust. Proving you're human will be a routine element of interacting online.

Critical antidote: value handcraft. Be human.

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

"We are confronted by... increasingly unmanageable Earth system-wide... shifts in life support systems... This requires a new approach... fully in sync with Anthropocene dynamics... Planetary resilience is... central to sustaining the foundations of all life and ensuring justice. A global commons approach... must be expanded to include critical Earth regulating systems... The planetary commons will require... governing... livability on Earth... irrespective of where these functions are located."

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

It is always a thrill to find well-travelled old connections between villages in the forest, no longer in use. This one leads to a settlement site that goes back to neolithic and Slavic times but was later abandoned in favour of today's village, situated in some distance, much closer to a lake shore. The hollowed-out course continues a bit further along a peri-glacial dry valley, where runoff dug in on top of ice age permafrost. There was a major drainage channel for glacial melt water close by.

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

A "stumbling stone" marker in the pavement reminding today's inhabitants of my town that neighbours were deported and murdered under their predecessor's eyes, on their watch. #HolocaustRemembranceDay.

Ruth Olschowski was 40 when she was deported and murdered in Auschwitz, as was her son Hans-Peter. Both had been separately living in hiding until then, hoping to escape.

As @afelia reminded everybody, the Shoah did not begin with gas chambers.

Be vocal. #NeverAgain

A picture of Ruth and Hans-Peter Olschowski taken in ca. 1929.

18+ stux, 4 months ago to random

I remember some evil humans doing the same in the last World War

Talking about sinking to a new low

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

Whoa! 👉 Our new perspectives paper just went online!

Introducing an important new paradigm: the notion of #Earth regulating "planetary commons" - a substantial and critical framing for building global governance fit for the #Anthropocene.

"Planetary Commons" are #Earth systems on nation's territories, under sovereignty and ownership - but maintaining them is vital for keeping Earth stable. How does humanity govern them? 🌏🌎🌍

More tomorrow!

👉 Open access:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2301531121

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to Birds

In turbulent times, we have to keep focus and remember why it's good to be alive.

This was my view last weekend from a bird watching tower in western #Brandenburg.

The shallow lake is a protected sanctuary for #birds today, a resting place for migrating and other birds, an important place. I even saw a few majestic great white egrets - not totally rare anymore; but here only as winter guests.

Until 1990 this was a drained bog, fallen dry for use. It was re-wetted and is now this paradise.

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

Respect for nature and for people belong together. Our dignity depends on both.

Today, well over 100.000 people came out in Munich as well as in Berlin to demonstrate against far-right demagogues and their politics of discord, nationalistic egotism and mistrust in science and democracy. Tens of thousand more came out in Cologne and many other cities throughout Germany.

It is encouraging to finally see pushback from civil society against views that should have been left behind a long time ago.

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to hamburg

Wow, what a HUGE demonstration against the right, far-right and neofascists in Hamburg this afternoon!

Very important and necessary that people stand up against this undermining of democracy, decency and all our values by these demagogues and authoritarians.

https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Demo-gegen-Rechtsextremismus-in-Hamburg-vorzeitig-beendet,hamburgstehtauf108.html

#Hamburg #HamburgStehtAuf

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

Still no news on whether Japan's #slim #moon lander successfully touched down. Data is being received, but the overall situation is unclear, a press conference pending. Some speculate the lander might have come to rest in an unintended orientation to the surface, there's quite a slope. It used pre-landing scanning for obstacle avoidance.

Want the ultra-cool tiny moon #rover LEV-2 to succeed, one of 2 types on board! It's not larger than a child's fist: 8 cm, 250g + 2 cameras, adapts shape ...

A complex status graphic during decent to the lunar surface from the Japanese space agency shows the thrusters working as a sloping curve of descent towards the surface is followed. Height is 5-10 km.
A complex status graphic during decent to the lunar surface from the Japanese space agency shows the final approach of the lander to the surface with thrusters working and the spacecraft 200m above the surface, which has quite a slope in one of the directions.

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

Euractive is a really important source of information for me. If you're interested in what is going on in the EU policy arena - and you really should be - this is a key place to follow.

💥BUT💥 I am really annoyed that they switched to this stupid model of "it will remain totally free but you have to register and log in every time you want to read an article". Ok, it's their site and journalism can't just be for free. But I don't want to be tracked, monitored, identified.

Why, @euractiv_green??

A description of Euractive's mission as they describe it, saying i.a. "Euractiv is an independent pan-European media network specialised in EU affairs, established by its Founder Christophe Leclercq in 1999. We cover EU policy processes upstream of decisions, summarising the issues without taking sides. Euractiv’s policy coverage is spread across eight ‘hubs’, Agrifood, Economy, Energy & Environment, Global Europe, Health, Politics, Technology, and Transport." More here: https://www.euractiv.com/about-euractiv/

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

The Sun this morning was a bit like the day. One online meeting followed the other without gaps, not even for lunch. Environmental council, CO2 budget, planetary health check, hiring, planetary boundaries limit CO2 extraction. But good stuff and wonderful people I get to work with! And looks like Brandenburg is delaying - again - a thoroughly designed, justified and negotiated 'climate plan' to 2045. When the right marches and protests gather, climate and the future are put on the slow burner.

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

In the largest demonstration Potsdam has seen in recent years, thousands of citizens protested today against the rise of the far-right and their ultra-right sidekicks in Germany. Nationalists and neofascists throughout Europe are coordinating their subversion of democracy.

W_Lucht, 4 months ago to random

China views its claims to Taiwan a "reunification", a wording commonly taken up in Western media. Did you know that:

• Taiwan's aboriginal population was Austronesian well into the 17th century. Today's 98% Han majority came about only later through migration under the Qing, who annexed Taiwan in 1683.
• In the 20th century, Taiwan was governed from the mainland for only 4 years, 1945-49. 1895-1945 it was a colony forcefully ceded to imperial Japan; since 1949 it has maintained its independence.