Water loss in northern peatlands threatens to intensify fires, global warming
Water loss in northern peatlands threatens to 
intensify fires, global warminghttps://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-05/mu-wli050820.php Boreal climate change study features 59 authors, MCMASTER UNIVERSITY HAMILTON, ON, MAY 11, 2020 – A group of 59 international scientists, led by researchers at Canada’s McMaster University, has uncovered new information about the distinct effects of climate change on boreal forests and peatlands, which threaten to worsen wildfires and accelerate global warming.Manuel Helbig and Mike Waddington from McMaster’s School of Geography and Earth Sciences gathered observational data from collaborators in countries across the boreal biome. Their study of how ecosystems lose water to the atmosphere appears today in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The unprecedented detail of their work has highlighted dramatic differences in the ways forests and peatlands regulate water loss to the atmosphere in a warming climate, and how those differences could in turn accelerate the pace of warming.
Most current global climate models assume the biome is all forest, an omission that could seriously compromise their projections, Helbig says.
“We need to account for the specific behavior of peatlands if we want to understand the boreal climate, precipitation, water availability and the whole carbon cycle,” he says.
“Peatlands are so important for storing carbon, and they are so vulnerable.”
Until now, Helbig says, it had not been possible to capture such a comprehensive view of these water-cycle dynamics, but with the support of the Global Water Futures Initiative and participation from so many research partners in Canada, Russia, the US, Germany and Scandinavia, new understanding is emerging.
As the climate warms, air gets drier and can take up more water. In response to the drying of the air, forest ecosystems – which make up most of the world’s natural boreal regions – retain more water. Their trees, shrubs and grasses are vascular plants that typically take up carbon dioxide and release water and oxygen through microscopic pores in their leaves. In warmer, dryer weather, though, those pores close, slowing the exchange to conserve water.
Together with lakes, the spongy bogs and fens called peatlands make up the remainder of the boreal landscape. Peatlands store vast amounts of water and carbon in layers of living and dead moss. They serve as natural firebreaks between sections of forest, as long as they remain wet.
Peatland mosses are not vascular plants, so as warming continues, they are more prone to drying out. Unlike forests, they have no active mechanism to protect themselves from losing water to the atmosphere. Dehydration exposes their dense carbon stores to accelerated decomposition, and turns them from firebreaks into fire propagators, as shown in previous research from Waddington’s ecohydrology lab.
Drier peatlands mean bigger, more intense fires that can release vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming, Helbig says.
“It’s crucial to consider the accelerated water loss of peatlands in a warming climate as we project what will happen to the boreal landscape in the next 100 to 200 years,” he says.
If You Like Covid-19, You’ll Love Nuclear War
Might this unsteady and unseemly American president soon become subject to still more serious forms of personal dissemblance and/or psychological debility? Leaving aside Trump’s largely unprecedented and breathtaking venality,[5] his open indifference to history and above all his continuing malfeasance and shameless dishonesty, should he still be allowed to decide whether we Americans should live or die?It also reveals his incapacity to feel even a scintilla of human empathy for other human beings.
What does all this really mean? In what specific policy directions should we Americans now be propelled? Continue reading
Russia proposes 3 year extension of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start-3): USA silent
Russia proposes five-year extension of nuclear weapons treaty, https://www.plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn&id=55581&SEO=russia-proposes-five-year-extension-of-nuclear-weapons-treaty Temas Relacionados: 11Moscow, May 11 (Prensa Latina) Russia proposed on Monday to extend for another five years the validity of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start-3), amid the silence of the United States to refer to that possibility.
In the course of five years, a new mechanism for controlling weapons of mass destruction can be developed, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov.
Contacts between Moscow and Washington in the area of strategic weapons are maintained on a permanent basis, stressed the Russian deputy foreign minister, who admitted the absence for now of any intention from the White House to seek an extension of the agreement, without conditions.
I believe that Start-3 has worked and produced results over the past decade and can be sought to be extended for another five years to achieve a new agreement or to improve the existing one in that important area, the official said.
Riabkov described the American hopes that the so-called Chinese factor might have some influence on the Russian position as unrealistic. One cannot unite in a single discussion issues, the content of which is lacking in common, he said.
For the Russian diplomat, it is truly cumbersome to overload the already difficult relations between Russia and the United States with new problems and concerns.
On the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it would be wise to show the utmost responsibility for keeping Start-3, signed in Prague in April 2010, he observed. That compromise expires next year.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty- its promise and its failure
Now, nuclear disarmament is at a standstill, existing treaties have either been dismantled or at risk, development in underway of new types of nuclear weapons with new missions and lowered threshold of use, and threats of use of nuclear weapons have been sounded.
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25 Years After the Indefinite Extension of The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: A Field of Broken Promises and Shattered Visions InDepth News, By Tariq Rauf 11 May 20, VIENNA (IDN) – “I long ago took to heart the words of Omar Bradley, spoken virtually a half century ago, when he observed, having seen the aftermath of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus: ‘We live in an age of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We live in a world that has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. We’ve unlocked the mysteries of the atom and forgotten the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living’.”
These remarks were made by General George Lee Butler, the last Commander of the United States Strategic Air Command (SAC) in a speech in Ottawa, Canada, on 11 March 1999. “Why a country that makes atomic bombs would ban fireworks”, asked a child at the United Nations kindergarten in New York. ………..Decision on the Indefinite Extension of the NPT The momentous decision to extend the NPT indefinitely was taken on Thursday, 11 May 1995, in the 17th plenary meeting of the review and extension conference starting at 12:10 PM New York time. The President of the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference (NPTREC), Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala (Sri Lanka), began the meeting by saying that, “I apologize to all delegations for the delay in convening this meeting, but I assure them that it was for very good reasons. Consultations were taking place amongst delegations to ensure that our work should progress smoothly. We also commence a little after high noon to intensify the drama of the occasion”. Dhanapala informed the delegates that three proposals were on the table regarding options for the extension of the Treaty, these were: (1) a proposal by Mexico, calling for indefinite extension along with a number of procedural elements; (2) a proposal submitted by Canada on behalf of 103 States parties and subsequently sponsored by eight additional States parties, calling for the indefinite extension with no added elements; and (3) a proposal submitted by Indonesia and 10 States parties and subsequently sponsored by three additional States parties; calling for an extension for rolling fixed periods of twenty-five years with a review and extension conference at the end of each fixed period to conduct an effective and comprehensive review of the operation of the Treaty, and for the Treaty to be extended for the next fixed period of twenty-five years unless the majority of the parties to the Treaty decided otherwise at the review and extension conference………. The principles and objectives contained recommendations and actions covering all three pillars of the NPT: (1) nuclear disarmament; (2) nuclear-non-proliferation; and (3) peaceful uses of nuclear technologies. Continue reading |
Climate, nuclear, coronavirus news this week
An unidentified member of AIM Native American woman sits with her rifle at ready on steps of building in Wounded Knee, South Dakota, March 2, 1973. Indians still have control of town having seized it on Tuesday. Eleven hostages they had taken were finally released. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
The movement is on, in many countries, to return things to”normal” as the infection “curve” is reported to be “flattening”. But as lockdown rules are eased, in Germany and South Korea, infection rates go up again. With 4 million confirmed cases globally, there is no slowdown in the rate of infection. USA’s death toll is 80,000, while Russia’s and Brazil’s are thought to be soaring. COVID-19 is such a strange disease. Like climate denialism, – is a form of coronavirus denial going on?
A potential US extradition of Julian Assange poses existential threats to democracy..
Tiny killer agents – Cornaviruses, and also, Nuclear Radiation. As with viruses, containment of atomic weapons may be good, but eradication is best. .
International co-operation – essential for Coronavirus action, and for Climate action . Can Covid-19 response be a model for climate action?. Climate change – a bigger still challenge follows coronavirus. A small window of opportunity to stave off rapid global heating.
2020 hurtles toward the warmest year milestone –Heat+ humidity – global heating has already made parts of the world too hot for humans.
Trilateral Track 2 Nuclear Dialogues Consensus Statement.
USA.
- As U.S. military is plagued by COVID-19, Trump could end America’s endless losing wars, but will he? Pandemic may force USA to cut back on bloated spending on nuclear weapons. Raytheon selected to Build New Nuclear Cruise Missile [ Trump has shares].
- Survivors of nuclear radiation exposure are at greater risk from COVID-19.
- U.S. Congress kept in the dark about government nuclear negotiations with Saudi Arabia.
- Trump plans to divert development aid for poor countries, to promoting the nuclear industry.
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans a dangerous deregulation of radioactive waste. Concern growing over plan for high level nuclear waste storage in West Texas. Time extended by 60 days for comment on planned New Mexico nuclear waste dump. NRC rejects contentions raised by Beyond Nuclear and others against nuclear waste proposed site.
- Alabama joins Kentucky, South Dakota and West Virginia to criminalize fossil fuel protests.
- Close to 100 USA Environmental Rules now removed by Trump govt: here’s the list.
- Investigative journalism – “Get the Hell Off”: The Indigenous Fight to Stop a Uranium Mine in the Black Hills.
- $25 million settlement coming, over failed V.C. Summer nuclear project, with no SCANA admission of wrongdoing.
- “Stand-down” of activities at Michigan nuclear reactor, due to certain number of COVID-19 workers. Workers at ‘most toxic place in America’ – Hanford nuclear site – in fear of coronavirus. Indian Point nuclear power station – Unit 2 permanently closed.
- Surprise surprise. USA Justice Dept drops charges against Michael Flynn. General Michael Flynn Fired From The DIA – Russia Connections: A Summary. (From the archives – The plot thickens, as Michael Flynn’s shady nuclear deals are exposed. Michael Flynn’s involvement in shady nuclear deals with Saudi Arabia )
- Planet of the Humans – Film Review
- America’s very dangerous $multibillion plan for a nuclear-powered fighter plane.
UK. Wide and growing coalition of real concern about EDF’s Sizewell C nuclear project. Delay in preparations for Wylfa nuclear plant. Barrow, UK – hub of nuclear weapons work and nuclear transport. As UK’s Torness nuclear power station deteriorates, – cheaper to build renewables than to repair aging reactors. UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) gags staff on subject of Trident nuclear weapons in Scotland..
BAHRAIN. Bahrain’s new environmental bill – strict laws against nuclear waste dumping.
JAPAN. More delay for Japan to open Onagawa nuclear power plant Unit 2: Unit 1 to be closed.
NORTH KOREA. Satellite images reveal North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s new nuclear facility.
RUSSIA. The pandemic is a direct threat to Russia’s secret nuclear cities – says Rosatom chief.
INDIA. Lockdown in Tamil Nadu: 800 guest workers stage protest at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, attack cops .
SOUTH AFRICA. South Africa’s financially difficult nuclear ambitions.
BOSNIA. Bosnia aims to stop Croatia’s plan for radioactive waste dump close to the border.
LITHUANIA. Lithuania presses Belarus to delay use of nuclear fuel, for safety reasons.
UKRAINE. Ukraine’s Energy ministry limits operations of nuclear power plants. Looking back to May 1986 – the exodus from Kiev, after the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.
SOUTH KOREA. South Korea sticking to its policy of phasing out nuclear power, switching to renewables.
FRANCE. France’s Strategic Nuclear Forces. Big drop in France’s nuclear power generation..
SPAIN. The search for the 4th hydrogen bomb dropped over Palomares, Spain.
GERMANY. SPD, junior partner in Germany’s coalition government, calls to withdraw US nuclear arms.
AUSTRALIA. Bogus claims and dodgy Fed govt nuclear waste dumps process. Tilman Ruff: the Australian government has not made the case for Kimba nuclear waste site: a transparent public review is needed.
1 This Month.
Let’s keep radioactive waste away from our river!
Nuclear Power? -Never again
(Switzerland –https://www.greenpeace.ch/de/handeln/atomkraft-nie-wieder/+)
PETITION – Close Down the Monticello Nuclear Reactor on the Mississippi River!
Now until to February 10, 2026 Radioactive waste storage in France: the debate is finally open! How to participate?
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