Avainsana: climate change
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Climate, chaos theory and tipping points – is it too late?
The climate is an extremely complex physical system in which numerous components influence each other. The Earth’s atmosphere, rock cycle, hydrosphere, biosphere and cryosphere, i.e. glaciers, and the technosphere created by man interact with each other in many ways. The economy, society and the human mind affect the climate. This complex system has numerous interactions,…
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Geoengineering and climate modification vs Nature-based Solutions
It is often suggested that we could be saved from the climate crisis through climate modification and so-called “geoengineering”. In this idea, humans act as engineers who use technological solutions to maintain the Earth like a machine. The so-called ecomodernist movement in particular supports this idea. The fact is that humans could modify the climate…
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Donald Trump orders NASA to destroy climate change satellites
Donald Trump’s irrational actions continued when he decided to destroy two NASA satellites that study climate change and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatories satellites accurately measure the carbon content of the atmosphere and also the growth of plants on Earth, which also benefits farmers. According to NASA scientists,…
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Climate justice and global carbon tax – no free ride in climate matters
People are in a very unequal position in relation to climate change. The carbon footprint of others is ten thousand or even a hundred thousand or a million times compared to other people. For example, the emissions from Amazon’s major owner Jeff Bezos’ short space trip correspond to the annual carbon emissions of all the…
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System thinking and understanding complexity are keys to solve wicked problems
The world is very complex and big global problems need complex answers. You cannot fix world’s problems like Alexander the Great of Macedonia cut the Gordian Knot with his sword. Populist politicians and sometimes even scientists, often show easy answers to really complex problems; Like climate change is solved by planting more trees or with…
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Global forest loss
The more solar energy and water, the more biomass. A greater amount of light and heat and water enable a greater primary production (npp). That is why most of the world’s forests and biomass are in the tropics, where it is bright and warm all year round and it rains a lot. Tropical forests have…
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The electric car – the way, truth and life
Did you know that in the Donald Duck cartoons, Grandma Duck drives a 1916 Detroit Electric, which is an all-electric car? So the electric car is not a new invention. The first electric car was actually built in Aberdeen, Scotland as early as 1832. The combustion engine was developed by the German Karl Benz in…
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Global village, a bit fly and diversity – systems and synergy
When two things interact with each other, a system is created. The system of two components is the simplest possible system, for example the Earth and the Moon form a system where they affect each other with their attraction. Compared to this, our entire Solar System is a very complex system with millions of components.…
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Complexity and ”wicked problems” – complex sustainability problems require equally complex solutions
When a problem is simple, it has few components and its interactions are linear. In this case, it is easy to find a solution to the problem. However, environmental and sustainability issues are very rarely simple and linear. The socio-ecological system is very complex, it has numerous variables and interactions. For example, nature loss and…
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This summer’s adventure in the arctic region – thoughts from a trip in arctic Fennoscandia
This summer I made an exciting trip through Arctic Fennoscandia. I spent 8 days adventuring in the northernmost parts of Finland, Sweden and Norway in Lapland. My adventure in the Arctic began in Vantaa, where I boarded the night train to Rovaniemi. I arrived in Rovaniemi the next morning and from there I continued to…
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Climate change now vol 2 – escalation of climate crisis and the era of catastrophes
Very disturbing news: North Atlantic thermal anomalies (large deviations in the average temperature) and anomalies in the global average temperature point to something very dark: climate change is escalating and has leapfrogged to a whole new level. We have apparently already reached 2 degrees of warming, that is, the average temperature of the earth has…
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Wind power in a strong tailwind and the sunrise of solar power – a sustainable energy system is not just imagination
Two renewable energy sources are clearly above the others: solar power and wind power. They are the cleanest and cheapest ways to generate electricity. They are up to 10x cheaper than nuclear power and much cheaper than fossil fuels. Weather-based electricity is an endless and completely circular circular economy. Fossil and nuclear power are linear…
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Our friends, the trees, support the world – carbon sinks and stores and the importance of trees for life and communities
Trees 🌲🌳🍁 are in many ways the rulers and protectors of the world. Like the Ents from The Lord of the Rings. Out of all the biomass on earth, which is about 600 Gt, 450-500 Gt is in forests. There are no organisms as massive as trees. And there is no larger carbon storage or…
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Planetary boundaries and doughnuts
In 2009, the Stockholm Resilience Center presented Johan Rocksröm’s model of planetary boundaries. It has 9 different indicators that measure almost all environmental problems. The only things that there are no are light pollution, noise, radiation and comfort and aesthetics. Planetary boundaries are: freshwater use, land use (including desertification, deforestation, etc.), biodiversity, climate change, fine…
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The cruel reality of meat production – there is no such thing as a happy chicken or a climate-friendly pig
The biggest environmental act you can do is to become a vegetarian, preferably a Vegan. Did you know that more than 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from meat production? This is more than all the traffic in the world combined. A kilo of beef has up to 50 times more climate emissions than…
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After the energy revolution – a peek into the world and energy system of the 2040s
As I have stated several times: the future of energy production globally is in non-combustion-based clean renewable energy, especially wind and solar power. They are the cheapest, most logical, most profitable, easiest and cleanest ways to generate electricity. Wind power and solar power are available all over the world and can be stored as energy…
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Extreme weather is already commonplace – we need to increase society’s resilience and capacity
Climate warming is based on the fact that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases at the molecular level absorb the sun’s heat. Due to the spatial shape of the molecule, solar radiation energy creates potential energy between atoms as they move away from each other. This is released as movement energy and the movement of…
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Climate change today and the path from extreme disaster to sustainable balance
It finally came to this because of humanity’s greed: A couple of friends in India said that there has been no monsoon for three years and half of the palm leaves have turned yellow and died. A friend in Italy says that local people don’t go out there at all because of the scorching heat.…
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Flying and the environment – reasonable flying is not an environmental crime
Flying, including all passenger and freight traffic as well as airport infrastructure, globally causes about 2.5% of carbon dioxide emissions. Traffic causes 24-27% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions (Our World in Data; EPA). Of this, 3/4 is road traffic. Car traffic causes about 20 % of global climate emissions, in Finland and the USA…
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Methane ice clathrates and climate, the powder keg of the oceans
There are several feedbacks related to climate change that can either slow down or accelerate global warming. Climate change affects these and they, in turn, affect climate change. These include, for example, the earth’s albedo, i.e. the reflectivity of snow and ice in particular, which cools the earth by reflecting the sun’s radiation away. Warming…
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Science, economy, consumption and environmental degredation
The development of natural science is the basis for new innovations and the development of technology. The development of technology is basis for economical growth, energy consumption and population growth. The biggest single factor in economical growth is the development of techonology. All of these, economical growth, energy cosumption, population growth and the development of…