Climate Breakdown

Hear the podcast here: https://www.spreaker.com/user/14101666/episode-03-pedestrian-pandemic Broken Planet Headlines 3 1.  Beginning with recent science, a study published in the journal Nature reveals that bottom-trawling for fish in the world's oceans is responsible for 1 billion tonnes of underwater emissions each year, a figure higher than the pre-pandemic total for all commercial aviation.  Trawlers drag weighted nets across seabeds, scooping up diverse lifeforms and disturbing the carbon stored in the sediment, resulting in carbon dioxide.  The authors of the study are hoping to calculate the amount of CO2 that ends up in the atmosphere by the end of this year, and are calling for the numbers to be included in countries' greenhouse gas inventories at international negotiations.  Oceans are estimated to currently absorb around 30% of human emissions.  Many analysts believe that without government subsidies the practice would not be financially viable ...

Hear the episode here: https://www.spreaker.com/user/14101666/episode-02-cheri-honkala-from-poor-peopl Broken Planet Headlines 2 1. Beginning with recent science, a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change finds that not only has the coronavirus pandemic led to reduced demand for electricity, but a reduced role for fossil fuels within the remaining energy mix.  Researchers found that in the United States, Europe and India, monthly electricity demand dropped by up to 20% during 2020 relative to 2019, while monthly carbon emissions from electricity generation fell in some places by up to 50%.  The discrepancy results from the different costs of energy production methods: fossil-fired power plants are more expensive to run than build due to the constant influx of fuel needed, so when demand drops they go offline first.  Renewables and nuclear power, by contrast, incur fewer of their costs after initial construction, so utilities are more inclined to keep them r...

Hear the podcast here: https://www.spreaker.com/user/14101666/climatebreakdownep1sheridanfiree_4 “To put it simply, the state of the planet is broken” - U.N. Secretary General António Guterres in December 2020 . Broken Planet Headlines 1.  In January, the European Union's Earth observation program, known as Copernicus, published a climate update based on the latest data.  It found that 2020 was the warmest year on record in Europe, the 2010s were the warmest decade on record, and 2020 tied with 2016 for the warmest year globally.  Copernicus also concluded that CO2 concentrations last year rose to around 413ppm, and that the planet was now 1.25 degrees Celsius warmer than the average temperature in the late 19th century. This follows a December analysis from the UK website Carbon Brief, which found that in the absence of more rapid reductions the world is on track to pass the 1.5 degrees threshold by a median estimate of 2031, and the 2 degrees threshold by 2043.  ...