Tag Archives: Madrid

Climate Solutions

2% Beneath The Surface is Big: Report Shows Oxygen Levels in the Ocean are at Severe Risk

Dead Fish and Coral Collage

At the Climate Summit in Madrid, the International Union for Conservation of Nature recently released a report stating that the amount of oxygen in the ocean has decreased by two percent between 1960 and 2010. The report was penned by 67 scientists from 17 countries, nearly all of whom found evidence linking this deoxygenation to climate change and other human activities.

A two percent reduction in oxygen over fifty years may not seem like a lot, but it is an unprecedented rate of decline for the ocean, causing the sea to warm and acidify at a record speed. Being a body of salt water, the oceans respond to such elemental losses differently than the surface would. Dr. Dan Laffoley, one of the report’s editors, explained to The New York Times that if the heat absorbed by the ocean in the last fifty-five years went into the atmosphere instead, then the surface world would experience a roughly 65 degree (Fahrenheit) increase in global temperatures.

Furthermore, the two percent figure is only an average; oxygen levels are not uniform across the entire ocean. Some areas have a healthy amount of oxygen, but it is not evenly distributed. According to the journal Science, certain tropical waters have found a 40 to 50 percent drop in oxygen.

Most of the ocean’s oxygen is actually getting condensed towards the surface. In a self-perpetuating cycle, deoxygenation makes the water warmer, and warmer water is more buoyant. Therefore, the O2 floats to the top, but it comes at the expense of deeper waters that end up gasping for air. Likewise, when the water is warmer, marine life actually uses the reduced oxygen at a faster rate because all the creatures are vying for each breath.

Without adequate oxygen in the ocean, its vast species cannot survive. If they want to keep sustaining themselves, they have to change their behavior. This means altering migratory patters, diets, and habitats. When one species deviates from its typical behaviors, it can jeopardize entire food chains and ecosystems. Given the surplus of oxygen near the surface, for example, more animals are moving towards higher waters, oversaturating these environments with competing and invasive life-forms.

The main solution that the scientists offer for this issue principally involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions around the world. The ocean is the world’s largest natural carbon drain, but it is now becoming overburdened and overheated, making it incapable of holding as much oxygen or effectively doing its job. As another side effect, warm water also takes up more space through thermal expansion, so deoxygenation in the ocean actually accelerates sea level rise as well.

This report should be a reminder to world leaders at the UN Climate Conference that nature is not expendable in the fight against climate change. Preserving our oceans and forests is an essential element in protecting the human race. These landscapes mean more than just animals and plants. It is these very ecosystems and everything in them that give us the privilege of living in an environmentally sound world. We should not take them for granted, for an ocean ruined by humans will eventually lead to a ruined humanity.

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Climate Solutions, Entertainment, Music, Observation

Takin’ it to the Streets to Save the World – XR uses Saturday Night Fever to Wake up Planet Earth

Video
https://video-lynxotic.akamaized.net/Madrid-December7-2019.mov
Short Video illustrating the disco-bedience protest in madrid around the climate conference

Civil Disco-Bedience: Inspired Dance Protest Outside UN Climate Conference in Madrid

When it comes to the climate crisis, there is an unfortunate oversaturation of negative news. Rising temperatures, polluted oceans, wildfires, hurricanes, floods and more—all against the backdrop of political inaction. It does not always paint the most uplifting picture.

Even protests are often (rightfully) fueled by frustration and anger. While climate rallies are in the world’s best interests, their participants are usually an aggressively determined and ambitious crowd. Such is what it takes to fight the systemic behemoths that are behind climate change.

A first phase consisted of a kind of shock tactic to try to emphasize the seriousness of the dangers faced by all. “Die-ins” were a way to illustrate, almost literally, the consequences of inaction. Stopping traffic or blocking commerce was a way to force the public and the media to take notice.

The Extinction Rebellion has been putting on protests since May 2018, but it has become particularly active in the past few months. Its rallies can sometimes be perceived as extremism. Multiple members of the group have been arrested for their uncompromising actions and their protests have been made illegal in the city of London.

Then the floods, droughts, fires and extreme weather events started to become commonplace. Scientific reports showed the undeniable connection to man-made climate change. Global Warming became Climate Change then a Climate Crisis. The fear became palpable.

It appears that, even as at least some attention is being paid at the UN Climate Conference in Madrid, a major shift could be emerging in world opinion. World leaders are coming together to follow up on the 2015 Paris Accords and seek to come to sound agreements for the planet’s future.

More importantly, there is a massive shift in the auto industry with carmakers anticipating an eventual end to internal combustion engine (ICE) production in favor of electric vehicles (EVs).

Sometimes it’s necessary to look past the threats and the doom and try to imagine a world where the human race rises to an extinction level threat and not only survives but prevails. To imagine a world where energy is abundant and comes from the sun, from wind power and as yet unknown clean, sustainable energy sources.

Like driving a beautiful, clean, zero emission Tesla on beautiful mountain roads, charged from solar sources, and marveling at a better world all around. A Great fantasy today, but what kind of changes, to our ways of thinking, to our current corrupt infrastructure, to all that stands in the way, would it take to make it a reality?

A tiny first step could be for those that no longer need convincing that the Climate Crisis is real to come together and announce to the world, and more importantly to one another, that the journey towards, not just survival, but to a better life has begun. And what better way to do it than by….. dancing.

This week, the grassroots environmental organization known as the Extinction Rebellion blocked out Madrid’s busy Gran Via to dance in the street—enacting what they are calling “civil disco-bedience.”

Following the Unspoken Ethos of Elon Musk “Save the Planet and have Fun Doing it” is the new Mantra

In Madrid the protestors expressed nothing but upbeat vibes, as hundreds flooded the roads to jam out and move their bodies to songs of celebration and life, not death.

As several members of the party stated, the Extinction Rebellion has tried just about every option in the book to get politicians on board with prioritizing climate change. Sadly, very few of its efforts have been rewarded. Now that all of the leaders are at the conference talking out potential solutions, there is not much left for the organization to do.

Always savvy when it comes to public backlash and highly motivated for a more than righteous cause, it appears that the group has decided that there must be joy, exuberance, energy and even a celebratory atmosphere to the consciousness raising efforts, if they are to succeed.

So they dance. In the cold December air, some go shirtless and all express sentiments of optimism for the future. They stand for saving the world, and are having fun doing it. Hopefully, the politicians meeting inside Madrid’s IFEMA facilities are feeling as progressive as the protestors are, and will find some sort of innovative compromise before the Conference ends on December 13th.

As various groups come together searching for ways to act against the threats of the Climate Crisis and in favor of solutions and changes that will enable a life on earth that does not depend on burning carbon to live, they are realizing, it appears, that finding each other and reinforcing their mutual love for life and this planet may be the first, best, test in what will be humankind’s greatest challenge.

The citizens of earth ultimately have the power to decide the future. Now, and soon, that decision will be made, one way, or another. Perhaps celebrating this certainty by dancing on the streets of Madrid in the winter of 2019 may not be a bad way to acknowledge and affirm those truths, and begin the dance toward changes for the better.

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Breaking News, Climate Solutions

UN Climate Conference Kicks Off in Madrid: U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says America is Still on Board

Taking stock after a 4 year Pause

On December 2nd the 2019 UN Climate Conference began in Madrid, Spain. Called COP25, this Madrid Conference is the first worldwide meeting focusing on the climate crisis since 2015’s COP21—also known as the Paris Climate Agreement. The Chilean Government is heading the Conference with Minister of Environment of Chile Carolina Schmidt acting as Conference President. As locational hosts, the Spanish government is also helping the Conference with logistical matters.

Shortly before the Conference began, the World Meteorologist Organization released a report showing that the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is at an all time high. Around the same time, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres set the tone of the meeting by claiming that the “point of no return is no longer over the horizon.” This is but a glimpse of what is at stake at COP25.

Over the next two weeks, the Conference expects to receive over 29,000 guests, among them are fifty heads of states and representatives from over two-hundred nations. As for the United States, President Donald Trump and key members of his administration have been absent from the event so far. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi entered the meeting with a strong message of reassurance. Beside a team of fifteen U.S. Democratic lawmakers, Pelosi promised the UN that America is still on board with the fight against climate change, even through President Trump recently withdrew the nation from the Paris Climate Accord.

When COP21 took place four years ago, President Obama was still in office, and he agreed to cooperate with the conditions set about at the Conference. These conditions included keeping global temperatures levels within no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, limiting greenhouse gas emissions to what is naturally sustainable, and wealthier countries supporting developing nations in their switch to renewable energy

Trump’s Oil Driven Agenda Rejected by Pelosi and her Constituents

After Trump entered office in 2016, though, his conservative administration immediately campaigned to pull America out of these terms. Prioritizing the U.S. economy and wanting to support domestic fossil fuel producers, Trump officially removed America from the plan in November.

Pelosi’s opening message on behalf of the American government is therefore a bold one, going against the intentions and outlook of the country’s sitting president. Nevertheless, it is one that both Americans and people across the world can take comfort in. After China, the United States produces more carbon dioxide than any other country. Thus, our participation in the battle against climate change is crucial if worldwide change is ever to be achieved.

Also within the first day at the conference, leaders from the European Union spoke up, expressing the bloc’s concern for the environment and its eagerness to prioritize the issue going forward. Overall, the rhetoric is strong on day one.. all the same, this is only the beginning, the tasks are daunting and there is lots of work left to do.

Even if we as a planet do come to a diplomatic agreement on how to lower our carbon footprint, there is no guarantee that every nation will live up to expectations. Although the outlook for international cooperation seemed promising immediately following the Paris Conference, five years later, progress has been halting and breakthroughs hard to some by. 2019 is still expected to be one of the hottest years on record, and the 2010s will undoubtedly be the warmest decade of all time.

The Conference will continue through Friday, December 13th. By that time, the world will hopefully have made some progress toward an intergovernmental plan for how to attack this global challenge. Far more will, in any event be needed, as a plan, however well intentioned, is only as good as the action it evokes.

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