Ecology


< RFC+ >

Listing the worrying & disastrous aspects of the ecological situation, and the possible personal & strategic ways to address it.
Aspects of the ecological situation & the possible (personal, strategic) ways to address it.

Revisions:
    201810xx start
    20190615 overview
    20190730 read +lies
    20191014 read & touch <pau
    20191021 meh ... +pau +david
    20191021 david overview
    20200918 ping
    20220414 ping


Table of Contents
1 *** BAD
1.1 * CO2 emissions
1.2 * Loss of biodiveristy due to habitat depletion
1.3 * MBBF (Multi Bread Basket Failure)
1.4 * Rising sea levels
1.5 * Livestock farming / meat consumption
1.6 * Coral Reef bleaching
1.7 * Palm oil
1.8 * Extraction of wildlife in primary forests: bushmeat, pelts, ivory, etc
1.9 * Toxic Pollution: Chemical, Radiological, ...
1.10 * Losing control of Technology
1.11 * Invasive species (plants, animals, ...)
1.12 * Heatwaves & Widlfires
1.13 * Plastic packaging
1.14 * Systemic microplastics (in environment, food chains, etc)
1.15 * Plant diseases (and new spread vectors)
1.16 * Antibiotics & Antibiotic-resistent Bacteria
1.17 * Ice / glacier melting
1.18 * Arctic shipping ("Northern Sea Route")
1.19 * Light pollution
1.20 * Human "travel for fun"
1.21 * Changes in Ocean composition
1.22 * Polinators: Bees & Colony Collapse
1.23 * Threat to insects
1.24 * Human Overpopulation -> Resource Exhaustion
1.25 * Dumbass Megaprojects
1.26 * Bureocratic Rigidity
1.27 * Desertification
1.28 * Colonialism & Biotope collapse
1.29 * Zoonosis
1.30 * Livestock viruses
1.31 * Soil depletion
1.32 * Bottom trawling
1.33 * Deforestation
1.34 * Space debris
1.35 * Deep Sea Mining
1.36 * Attack on mangroves, etc
1.37 * Jevon's paradox
1.38 * Nurdles (Plastic pellets)
1.39 * Nitrate water pollution
1.40 * Climate inequality (disproportionate emissions of the capitalist class)
1.41 * Coal (and its derivative Coke) use in industrial processes
1.42 * Capitalism & impossibility of real disruption in oligopolies
1.43 * Alternative consumer choices & activist goals ... are sometimes worse
1.44 Imperialist wars (direct and indirect consequences)
2 *** CONTROVERSIAL
2.1 * nuclear energy
3 *** PERSONAL STRATEGIES
3.1 AS CONSUMER
3.1.1     (-) individual consumer choices
3.1.2     (+) finding, curating appropriate goods
3.2 AS CITIZEN / ACTIVIST
3.3 AS TECHNOLOGIST / HACKER
4 *** GOOD: STRATEGIC
4.1 * carbon sequestration
4.2 * rewilding / renaturing / "ecopoesis" / tree planting / environment restoration / etc
4.3 * get reliable #numerics, and visualize / represent
4.4 * prioretize the struggles
4.5 * forge more than alliances ... consolidate struggles
4.6 * recycling / upcycling
4.7 * regenerative industries & farming
4.8 * co-habitation with wild animals
4.9 * renaturing seems to happen quickly ?!
4.10 * new packaging
4.11 * new/improved fuels?
4.12 * "blue carbon": seagrass, mangroves & salt marshes
4.13 BECCS energy?
4.14 Ex-situ conservation
4.15 Non-exploited forests and "habitat trees" (for birds, etc)
5 *** ACTORS
6 *** PAD
6.1 (+) Ecotopia
6.2 (-) Apocalyptic sentiment ?
6.3 (?) horseshoe crab prospecting
6.4 Degrowth vs Post-growth
6.5 (++) pre-civilization Japan, "food forests", etc
6.6 (+) orcas destroying boats, Spain making part of sea no-go
6.7 (++) Restor, new major open-source ecology platform.
6.8 "Geo-engineering" or "geo-healing" ?
6.9 [!!] POLEMICS/ANTICAPITALISM— Ecosystem valuation: "Net value contribution" of ecosystems
6.10 Problem of burning wood & particle pollution
6.11 "Land sink" : diminishing and even turnaround of land/forest capacity to absorb carbon


*** BAD


* CO2 emissions

Also see 🔗climate !

:
    * fossil fuel heating & cooling (HVAC)
    * cars:
        """Last month, 4x4s, or SUVs, became the most popular newly registered car type in Germany for the first time, with a market share of 22.2%. More than 1m sports utility vehicles are expected to be registered in Germany by the end of the year, with the average driver aged between 46 and 65."""
    * airline transport
    * industry
    * [...]

also non-human sources:
    * forest-fires
    * volcano eruptions

warming also happens via other gases:
    * methane (via trash, thawing, ...)
    * [...]



* Loss of biodiveristy due to habitat depletion
(habitat loss)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/05/a-fifth-of-europes-wood-beetles-at-risk-of-extinction-as-ancient-trees-decline

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=472677381023916
#rewilding #phytocenology
(<Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't)
* bulldozing for pastures
* land clearance
* "ex-situ conservation" [!!→]


* MBBF (Multi Bread Basket Failure)

https://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:orspec:v:42:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s00291-020-00574-0

🔗projects
"""
http://www.bu.edu/pardee/the-risks-of-multiple-breadbasket-failures-in-the-21st-century-a-science-research-agenda/
"""According to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (Statistics Division 2016), a relatively small area of the world, 23 percent of total cropland, accounts for a large proportion of total global cereal production, with most of the area devoted to three major cereal crops: maize (70.3 percent), wheat (69.3 percent), and rice (84.5 percent)."""

* What would a MBBF (Multi Breadbasket Failure) look like?

* What would be the dramaturgy of such a collapse?:
    How long into the Sowing-to-Harvest timeline would we realize this?
    How would panic buying play out?
"""


* Rising sea levels

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise
"""
Tide gauge measurements show that the current global sea level rise began at the start of the 20th century. Between 1900 and 2017, the globally averaged sea level rose by 16–21 cm (6.3–8.3 in), or 1.4–1.8 mm (0.055–0.071 in) per year
"""

Height dimension is spoken to more often than lost area:
    https://www.ecowatch.com/sea-level-rise-countries-vulnerable-2602886224.html

Art:
    * https://medium.com/world-ocean-forum/a-stunning-art-installation-showing-projected-sea-level-rise-fc05ef1825cd
    * https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/09/high-water-line-bristol-climate-change-risk-art-project
    * ###




* Livestock farming / meat consumption
###animal agriculture

Also see:
    * 🔗farming and 🔗vegan
    * 🔗antipest (zoonosis)

https://ourworldindata.org/less-meat-or-sustainable-meat




* Palm oil
### also coconut oil

* Incredibly common in processed foods, would be incredibly difficult to evade

* Why is it cheaper than the replacement?:
    Only because it comes from the third world, and first-use soil (from destroyed habitats)?

* Dangers to habitats and endangered species, notably orangutans




* Extraction of wildlife in primary forests: bushmeat, pelts, ivory, etc

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/19/worlds-mammals-being-eaten-into-extinction-report-warns
"""Bushmeat has long been a traditional source of food for many rural people, but as roads have been driven into remote areas, large-scale commercial hunting is leaving forests and other habitats devoid of wildlife. """
------------------------
"""
Macdonald said: “You have got to distinguish between those people who have no choice but to eat bushmeat, and what is to be done for them, and people now living in towns who have a nostalgic memory for the time when they lived on bushmeat, but no longer need to, so it is a luxury.
”""




* Toxic Pollution: Chemical, Radiological, ...

* chemical waste, "forever chemicals"
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2023/11/10/in-belgium-scandal-arise-around-massive-pfas-water-pollution_6245554_114.html (Belgium: "PFAS scandal")

* nuclear waste

* oil spills

* [...]




* Losing control of Technology

Dangers:
    Biological, Chemical, Nuclear, ...

Scenarios:
    * runaway experiments
    * lost control of weaponry
    * [...]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/16/pentagon-review-weaponised-ticks-lyme-disease




* Invasive species (plants, animals, ...)

"""
An invasive species is a species that is not native to a specific location (an introduced species), and that has a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy or human health.
"""
= Need to be environment-destabilizing

Example list (invasive plants in Slovenia, via an article in a Kranj magazine):
    miscanthus sinensis (deco bog grass)
    solidago canadensis (yellow weeds)
    ambrosia artemisiifolia
    erigeron annuus (daisy like weeds)
    impatiens glandulifera (purple near-water, exploding seed pods!)
    aronia melanocarpa (edible but "astringent" tasting fruits) aka Black chokeberry
    aronia prunifolia
    fallopia japonica
    lycium barbarum .... goji berries? really?
    galega orientalis
    Paulownia tomentosa .... a tree

Also look at general topics !!!:
    * "invasive topologies / #molecules" : when species pair together:
        * capitalism + ambrosia (helps make surrounding areas to new development, also open up to development, as it turns them to shit)
        * rabbits + cats @lanzarote (rabbits have no predators, then cats step to profit, who are also invasive, killing birds)
        * [...]
    * good cases:
        * invasive plants as a generator of biomass for land regeneration
            ie. talks on "Food Forest project" from https://www.facebook.com/thesouthernlightsproject/
        * use of bamboo (non tracing root type) as a case for Lanza...
    * [...]

Example: invasive river crab specie in Slovenia, carrying a disease that would wipe out the autochtonous populations:
    (and methods of mitigation)
    https://www.tednik.si/druzba/22881-markovci-v-boj-zoper-invazivno-tujerodno-vrsto-potocnega-raka



* Heatwaves & Widlfires

* environment collapse
* wildfires
* human suffering
* food spoilage !!:
    (david "salad" case)
* increased water use
* increased electricity use (AC cooling)
* [...]




* Plastic packaging

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/22/tesco-promises-to-ban-brands-that-use-excessive-packaging
Recycling is not enough !

However, for example:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51040155
("Plastic packaging ban 'could harm environment'")




* Plant diseases (and new spread vectors)

Like https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/09/deadly-olive-tree-disease-spreads-france :
    "It advised members of the public not to bring any plants back from certain infected areas of the EU and elsewhere “unless accompanied by a phytosanitary or plant passport”."




* Antibiotics & Antibiotic-resistent Bacteria

This could definitely lead to a dystopia :-/




* Arctic shipping ("Northern Sea Route")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvy9usF7ohE
Russia's building mega-ports, mostly oil oriented (?)

##



* Human "travel for fun"

Massive Attack & reconsideration of touring
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/28/tour-world-massive-attack-band-climate




* Changes in Ocean composition

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/07/oceans-losing-oxygen-at-unprecedented-rate-experts-warn
:
    * losing oxygen
    * overfishing
    * [...]




* Polinators: Bees & Colony Collapse

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/07/honeybees-deaths-almonds-hives-aoe
Almond milk industry & using bees in an industrial capacity.

_______ the "ecosystem valuation" shit-take on this:
"""
HONEY BEES
MARKET CAP: $20 BILLIONB
Managed honey bees are the most valuable pollinators in terms of agricultural economics. These hyper-efficient insects can provide pollination to virtually any crop. Almonds, for example, are almost entirely dependent upon honey bee pollination. Without honey bees, the harvest of blueberries, squash, watermelon, and other fruits would be greatly reduced, driving up prices and disrupting the marketplace. According to the USDA, one colony of honey bees is worth 100 times more to the community than to the beekeeper — meaning the value they deliver extends well beyond their actual price.C 
Honey is more than just a by-product of pollination. This sweet nectar serves as an economic driver in its own right. Used commercially for food, skin creams, anti-aging lotions, and medical wound dressings, over 160 million pounds of honey are produced each year in the U.S. alone. In 2013, the honey crop was valued at over $300 million (U.S.).D 
"""
via https://www.forbes.com/sites/bayer/2019/10/14/the-value-of-pollinators-to-the-ecosystem-and-our-economy/


* Threat to insects

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/25/the-insect-apocalypse-our-world-will-grind-to-a-halt-without-them
"""
Insects have declined by 75% in the past 50 years – and the consequences may soon be catastrophic. Biologist Dave Goulson reveals the vital services they perform
"""



* Human Overpopulation -> Resource Exhaustion

:
    * #unciv (mailing list) / #deciv
    * #degrowth
    * #36c3
    * https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jan/10/i-campaign-for-the-extinction-of-the-human-race-les-knight
    * [...]




* Desertification

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertification
"""
Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly  arid.[2] It is the spread of arid areas caused by a variety of factors, such as  climate change (particularly the current global warming)[3] and overexploitation of soil as a result of human activity.[4]
"""

counter → 🔗renaturing




* Zoonosis

Due to the destruction of natural environments and thus narrowing of the distance between humans and other creatures, zoonosis will become a more prevailent threat to humans.

"""
A zoonosis (plural zoonoses, or zoonotic diseases) is an infectious disease caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a bacterium, virus, parasite or prion) that has jumped from a non-human animal (usually a vertebrate) to a human.[1][2][3] Typically, the first infected human transmits the infectious agent to at least one other human, who, in turn, infects others. 
"""

Examples:
    HIV, H5N1, COVID-19, "Mink" COVID-19 strain, Ebola, etc

Also!:
    bed bugs, etc


_____

Resources:
    * → 🔗antipest
    * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoonosis
    * http://www.emro.who.int/fr/about-who/rc61/zoonotic-diseases.html
    * [...]



* Deforestation

https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/planet-earth/forests-and-deserts/rate-of-deforestation/story
"""
Since 2016, an average of 28 million hectares have been cut down every year. That’s one football field of forest lost every single second around the clock.
[...]
Imagine over 100 large harvesters working non-stop. That’s how fast we are losing the world’s forests.
[...]
In just 40 years, a forest area the size of Europe has gone.
Half of the world’s rainforest has been destroyed in just one century.
"""
#numerics



* Space debris

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris
"""
Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution,[1] space waste, space trash, or space garbage) is defunct human-made objects in space—principally in Earth orbit—which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecraft—nonfunctional spacecraft and abandoned launch vehicle stages—mission-related debris, and particularly numerous in Earth orbit, fragmentation debris from the breakup of derelict rocket bodies and spacecraft. In addition to derelict human-built objects left in orbit, other examples of space debris include fragments from their disintegration, erosion and collisions, or even paint flecks, solidified liquids expelled from spacecraft, and unburned particles from solid rocket motors. Space debris represents a risk to spacecraft.[2]
Space debris is typically a negative externality—it creates an external cost on others from the initial action to launch or use a spacecraft in near-Earth orbit—a cost that is typically not taken into account nor fully accounted for in the cost[3][4] by the launcher or payload owner.[5][1][6] Several spacecraft, both manned and unmanned, have been damaged or destroyed by space debris.[citation needed] The measurement, mitigation, and potential removal of debris are conducted by some participants in the space industry.[7] 
"""

A video intro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMTOo-3p-T4
"""
As Elon Musk's Starlink and Jeff Bezos's Project Kuiper race to create high-speed internet using satellites orbiting Earth, there's a small problem that could get in the way: debris. From dead spacecraft that have been around since the dawn of the space age to flecks of paint smashing windows on the International Space Station, rubbish is clogging up our orbits. And with objects moving as fast as 15,500mph (25,000 kmph), the satellite services we've come to depend on are at constant risk of collision. So how to fix the problem with junk in space? Ian Anderson investigates
"""

https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/outer-space-human-pollution/
"""
When this happens, they will burn up in the atmosphere, and that means whatever they’re made of, including all of the heavy elements and toxic compounds present within them, will simply become additional pollutants present in our biosphere. While meteorites naturally add about 500 kg of aluminum to our atmosphere each day, on average, a single Starlink 2.0 satellite (the current generation) weighs in at 1250 kg, which is mostly aluminum. (Note: several hundred Starlink satellites have already re-entered the atmosphere.) This additional aluminum impacts all living creatures on Earth through:
  • the additional seeding of clouds,
  • changes to Earth’s reflectivity and heat-trapping properties,
  • the destruction of stratospheric ozone molecules,
  • and the disruption of atmospheric circulation at a variety of altitudes,
"""


* Attack on mangroves, etc

The other side of "blue carbon" ...

"""
María Claudia Diazgranados, a marine biologist and CI’s blue carbon director in Colombia, said: “We have been looking for a way to fund this ecosystem for years. Some 50% of mangroves have been lost from the Caribbean coast over the past three decades, due to cattle ranching, roads and tourism.”
"""
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/04/can-blue-carbon-make-offsetting-work-these-pioneers-think-so



* Jevon's paradox

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox
"""
In economics, the Jevons paradox (/ˈdʒɛvənz/; sometimes Jevons' effect) occurs when technological progress or government policy increases the efficiency with which a resource is used (reducing the amount necessary for any one use), but the rate of consumption of that resource rises due to increasing demand.[1] The Jevons paradox is perhaps the most widely known paradox in environmental economics.[2] However, governments and environmentalists generally assume that efficiency gains will lower resource consumption, ignoring the possibility of the paradox arising.[3]
"""



* Nurdles (Plastic pellets)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/29/nurdles-plastic-pellets-environmental-ocean-spills-toxic-waste-not-classified-hazardous
"""
Billions of these tiny plastic pellets are floating in the ocean, causing as much damage as oil spills, yet they are still not classified as hazardous
[...]
They are often mistaken for food by seabirds, fish and other wildlife. In the environment, they fragment into nanoparticles whose hazards are more complex. They are the second-largest source of micropollutants in the ocean, by weight, after tyre dust. An astounding 230,000 tonnes of nurdles end up in oceans every year.
"""



* Nitrate water pollution

https://www.euronews.com/2022/02/25/save-our-water-the-devastating-impact-of-nitrate-pollution-in-spain
"How nitrate water pollution is posing a threat to people and ecosystems in Spain"



* Climate inequality (disproportionate emissions of the capitalist class)

In Slovenia (very low gini!) & Global
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10160775581154739&set=pcb.10160775581319739

1% = 100x higher
"""
The richest 10% create 48% of all carbon emissions, the richest 1% even 17%. Meanwhile the poorest 50% create in total 12% of emissions.
"""



* Coal (and its derivative Coke) use in industrial processes

In the steel industry & some of chemical industry, comparable processes with electric energy do not exist.

Burning hydrogen (which can be produced in greener ways — from natural gas, or with electric energy) can be a replacement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_economy#Current_production_methods



* Capitalism & impossibility of real disruption in oligopolies

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0bkrk32/how-an-electric-car-dream-was-crushed
Story of General Motors EV1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1
"""
The General Motors EV1 was an electric car produced and leased by General Motors from 1996 to 1999.[6] It was the first mass-produced and purpose-designed electric vehicle of the modern era from a major automaker and the first GM car designed to be an electric vehicle from the outset.[7]
"""
-----------------------
"""
While customer reaction to the EV1 was positive, GM believed that electric cars occupied an unprofitable niche of the automobile market, and ended up crushing most of the cars, regardless of protesting customers.[11] Furthermore, an alliance of the major automakers litigated the CARB regulation in court, resulting in a slackening of the ZEV stipulation, permitting the companies to produce super-low-emissions vehicles, natural gas vehicles, and hybrid cars in place of pure electrics.
"""



* Alternative consumer choices & activist goals ... are sometimes worse
* Complexity and problems of "alternative" consumer choices / activist goals (sometimes worse)
(Besides consumer choics being the wrong point as to where to primarily solve the situation, there are ample examples of making things worse)

? polyurethane leather ("vegan leather") VS leather
* """The production of the PVC used in the production of many artificial leathers requires a plasticizer called a phthalate to make it flexible and soft. PVC requires petroleum and large amounts of energy thus making it reliant on fossil fuels. During the production process carcinogenic byproducts, dioxins, are produced which are toxic to humans and animals.[6] Dioxins remain in the environment long after PVC is manufactured. When PVC ends up in a landfill it does not decompose like genuine leather and can release dangerous chemicals into the water and soil"""
* https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/fashion-news/a30640996/vegan-leather-sustainability/

? plastic bags VS Canvas bags/tote bags
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/to-tote-or-note-to-tote/498557/
Reusable does not mean reused!

? quinoa
https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/how-quinoa-is-shaping-monocultures-and-damaging-biodiversity/



Imperialist wars (direct and indirect consequences)

American war in Vietnam
"""
The U.S. Air Force destroyed more than 20% of the jungles of South Vietnam and 20–50% of the mangrove forests, by spraying over 20 million gallons of toxic herbicides (defoliants), including Agent Orange.[65][66][67] The war is one of the most commonly used examples of ecocide.[68][69][70]
"""



<----------------------------------- (new) BAD ↑
* Xyz






*** CONTROVERSIAL


* nuclear energy

See 🔗nuclear !

Nuclear seems to be an essential transitional technology.
Existing nuclear plants should not be taken out.








*** PERSONAL STRATEGIES

First see → 🔗struggling



AS CONSUMER


    (-) individual consumer choices

Lol: "green capitalism" and "prosumers" ...


    (+) finding, curating appropriate goods

Product & service replacements!

See 🔗lim0 !





AS CITIZEN / ACTIVIST

🔗struggling !

### already contained !
    (+) pushing pressure for legislation
    (~) voting



AS TECHNOLOGIST / HACKER

🔗hacc-index
🔗hacc-directory
🔗real-hacks









*** GOOD: STRATEGIC


* carbon sequestration

photosynthesis : as strategy in agriculture: use the existng infrastructure
see 🔗farming-notes



* rewilding / renaturing / "ecopoesis" / tree planting / environment restoration / etc

🔗renaturing
also:
    * "terraforming"
    * "greening"
    * "reversing desertification"
    * [...]

_________________ Pro

    * https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/04/planting-billions-trees-best-tackle-climate-crisis-scientists-canopy-emissions

    * Uncivilisation Manifesto by Dark Mountain Project, 2010:
        "The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilisation. — Ralph Waldo Emerson"
        "‘Few men realise,’ wrote Joseph Conrad in 1896, ‘that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings.’
        "The myth of progress is founded on the myth of nature. The first tells us that we are destined for greatness; the second tells us that greatness is cost-free. Each is intimately bound up with the other.(...)The very fact that we have a word for ‘nature’ is evidence that we do not regard ourselves as part of it. "
        "nobody, in an age of ‘consumer choice’, wanted to be told by this stone-faced prophet of the California cliffs that "‘it is good for man … To know that his needs and nature are no more changed in fact in ten thousand years than the beaks of eagles.’  

For example:
    * Nomad Trees
        (2019-10) a newly-created collective in Greece of local permaculture actors
    * "ecopoesis" in Mars Trilogy (Kim Stanley Robinson)
    * [...]


_________________ Contra / However

* https://twitter.com/pepcanadell/status/1147066574299377664
* ###


____________

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/20/our-biggest-challenge-lack-of-imagination-the-scientists-turning-the-desert-green
"""
In China, scientists have turned vast swathes of arid land into a lush oasis. Now a team of maverick engineers want to do the same to the Sinai [...]
Van der Hoeven is a co-founder of the Weather Makers, a Dutch firm of “holistic engineers” with a plan to regreen the Sinai peninsula – the small triangle of land that connects Egypt to Asia. Within a couple of decades, the Weather Makers believe, the Sinai could be transformed from a hot, dry, barren desert into a green haven teeming with life: forests, wetlands, farming land, wild flora and fauna. A regreened Sinai would alter local weather patterns and even change the direction of the winds, bringing more rain, the Weather Makers believe – hence their name.
"""
Informative article, does namedrops.
* https://www.commonland.com/ : "Revitalizing communities and regenerating landscapes offers tremendous opportunities for society and business"
* https://ecosystemrestorationcamps.org/
* #towatch : Green Gold  - Documentary by John D. Liu
* [...]



* get reliable #numerics, and visualize / represent

see 🔗numerics, and 🔗representation.systems !



* prioretize the struggles

by:
    * knowledge commons ...
    * 🔗middlemachine
    * 🔗representation.systems
    * 🔗numerics
    * [...]



* forge more than alliances ... consolidate struggles

via 🔗intersub



* recycling / upcycling

:
    * transparency is important !:
        "I heard they all just put it on the same pile" and other myths
    * acknowledge limit to recycling
        (and limit liberal good feels)
    * build and represent integrated systems !

Notable cases:
    * glass
    * microelectronics
    * solar panels (and difficulty thereof) !
    * [...]

_________________

trashing < recycling < upcycling < reusing < giving up < not needing
https://sweden.se/nature/the-swedish-recycling-revolution/



* regenerative industries & farming

see 🔗farming-notes



* co-habitation with wild animals

Slovenia:
    https://siol.net/novice/slovenija/napadi-volkov-so-se-okrepili-na-prizadeta-obmocja-prihaja-okoljski-minister-503945
    High number of Wolves & Bears
    Exporting to other countries (France)
    2019 a controversial year (emergency decretes mandating hunters to lower population)



* new packaging

###



* new/improved fuels?

* "green hydrogen" → steel industry

* "green natural gas":
    "up to 80% less emissions"
    ???

* ###



* "blue carbon": seagrass, mangroves & salt marshes

"""
And unlike “green carbon” rainforests, which store carbon in biomass, and therefore release it when the trees die, mangroves store most of the carbon in their soil and sediment. If undisturbed, it stays there for millennia.
This superpower means “blue carbon” (the sequestration and storage of carbon by ocean ecosystems) is gaining attention in the race towards net zero. And the “big three” stores of blue carbon – mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass – are suddenly urgent new areas of conservation.
"""

After COP26:
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/04/can-blue-carbon-make-offsetting-work-these-pioneers-think-so


Ex-situ conservation

###



Non-exploited forests and "habitat trees" (for birds, etc)

(SLO)
https://www.delo.si/magazin/zanimivosti/za-ogrozene-ptice-bodo-kupili-naravni-gozd/


<----------------------------------- (new) GOOD/STRATEGIC ↑









*** ACTORS

* XR:
    * see 🔗XR
    * the story : https://rebellion.earth/the-truth/the-emergency/

* Youth for climate (thursday strikes etc)

* Greenpeace

* Sea Shepherd

* WWF

* OXFAM:
    ### controversy ???

* HACC (Hackers against climate change):
    → 🔗hacc-index

* UN: UNESCO
* UN: FAO?
* UN: ...
* UN Climate Summit, 2019-09-23, NY, an 18 month plan, see

* Eko Krog (SLO)
* Balkan river defense (SLO)

* [...] !!!

___________________

Also consult:
    * 🔗alike
    * 🔗non-shitty
    * 2020-deadline; an 18 month plan
    * [...]







*** PAD


(+) Ecotopia

https://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/3059.pdf
    "" ecocentrism,  sufficiency,  and embeddedness ""




(-) Apocalyptic sentiment ?

See 🔗doomsday !




Degrowth vs Post-growth

Both need to happen.
* Degrowth - in a sense of really contracting the economy - producing and consuming less. Making products last longer. More DIY - especially growing food, ecopoesis. Distributing things non-economically(?), (gift economy = not really an economy?), etc.
* Postgrowth - the metric, and catering to it needs to be abandoned. 



(++) pre-civilization Japan, "food forests", etc

link to Daniel Niles's book !
(anthropocene campus)



(++) Restor, new major open-source ecology platform.

https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/global-restoration-now-has-an-online-meeting-point/
"""
Restor is a map-based, open-source platform that combines on-the-ground knowledge, ecosystem research, and satellite imagery so people can better plan, manage and monitor restoration projects.
The locations of more than 50,000 restoration and conservation initiatives are now registered in Restor, as well as data from more than 60,000 scientists on environmental parameters such as climate, temperature, precipitation, local plant and tree species, soil characteristics and more.
[...]
Currently, Restor is collecting data from restoration projects around the world. Anyone with a project can apply for access to the site where they will be able to enter data about their project and ecosystem
"""



"Geo-engineering" or "geo-healing" ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Popeye
###


[!!] POLEMICS/ANTICAPITALISM— Ecosystem valuation: "Net value contribution" of ecosystems

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem_valuation

The weird and misconstrued hypercapitalist debate around "value contribution" of basic ecosystems to the economy

_________

Example:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bayer/2019/10/14/the-value-of-pollinators-to-the-ecosystem-and-our-economy
"""
watermelon, and other fruits would be greatly reduced, driving up prices and disrupting the marketplace. According to the USDA, one colony of honey bees is worth 100 times more to the community than to the beekeeper — meaning the value they deliver extends well beyond their actual price.
"""

______________

Views on this:
    A) "this can make some finance-oriented people realize the value they otherwise wouldn't see"
    B) "this is an hypercapitalist imposition that will lead to a rational of replacement"
    ####


Problem of burning wood & particle pollution
#totalism.case

(Slovenia, 2023)
https://podcrto.si/fini-delci-v-zraku-v-sloveniji-bomo-morali-onesnazenost-znizati-za-dve-tretjini/
* For PM2.5, 73% is from household heating emissions!
* Even "modern" furnaces pollute "25x as an old camion without a filter", pellet "5x as much"
* """Avtorji projekta zagovarjajo daljinsko ogrevanje in ogrevanje na plin v mestih, na podeželju pa toplotne črpalke in kotle na lesne pelete."""
* """Po podatkih ministrstva za okolje za leto 2018 je v Sloveniji približno 205.000 kurilnih naprav na trdno gorivo, glavnino tega predstavlja les"""

* ###



"Land sink" : diminishing and even turnaround of land/forest capacity to absorb carbon

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/15/finland-emissions-target-forests-peatlands-sinks-absorbing-carbon-aoe
"""
Natural sinks of forests and peat were key to Finland’s ambitious target to be carbon neutral by 2035. But now, the land has started emitting more greenhouse gases than it stores [...] Its forest sink has declined about 90% from 2009 to 2022, with the rest of the decline fuelled by increased emissions from soil and peat. In 2021-22, Finland’s land sector was a net contributor to global heating.
[...]
Rising temperatures in the most rapidly warming part of the planet are heating up Finland’s soils, increasing the rate at which peatlands break down and release greenhouse gases into the air. Palsas – enormous mounds of frozen peat – are rapidly disappearing in Lapland.
"""


<--------------------------------- ((new))


#hypertextile
BYSSUS - sea slik, made from mollusks
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/nov/12/sea-silk-byssus-auction-textile-mollusks
>pau