Issue 49
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World
Climate
Climate Refugees
Great BBC Story about Himalayn climate refugees moving whole villages (from Susan, Thanks Susan):
- The drought that forced a Himalayan village in Nepal to relocate: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240522-the-drought-that-forced-a-himalayan-village-in-nepal-to-relocate
GeoEngineering
Sulfur dioxide (SO₂)
I am interested in the geo-technical aspects of GeoEngineering to cool the planet but I think those are not solutions to try on large scales because of the unintended consequences that would inevitably occur and that humans would absolutely fuck it up - like overcorrect to a summer of ice. Especially when we have alternatives to fossil fuels and far less drastic ways to address the primary issue of de-carbonization. That said, I thought the next set of articles were extremely interesting. Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) is once again rising to the top of the media as a potential solution primarly because it is so effective at cooling.
When moved to the stratosphere, SO₂ cools the atmosphere 1,000,000 times as effectively as CO₂ heats it. This is 25 times better leverage than tropospheric SO₂. To drive the point home, just 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of SO₂ in the stratosphere offsets the warming effect of ~2.2 million pounds (1 million kg) of CO₂ for a year.
You read that right. 1 Million times the cooling effect of SO₂ vs. the warming effect of CO₂. This is a pretty amazing statistic. I think some nation, like India, whose population is suffering more and more from the impact of climate change, is going to experiment at scale with something like this. I don’t want to see it, but I think it’s inevitable as the human impact worsens. I could absolutely see someone trying tests of injecting SO₂ into the stratosphere at the poles. But maybe they’ve never heard of, or don’t care, about jet streams?
- Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) in the upper atmosphere: https://www.cremieux.xyz/p/from-pollution-to-solution
- NASA: Particles in upper atmosphere slow down global warming: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/556/particles-in-upper-atmosphere-slow-down-global-warming/
The Blob
We are already GeoEngineering the planet, if inadvertently. Everyone knows of our great experiment with CO2. Now, there’s analysis that a reduction of aerosol air pollution from China has a warming impact on “The Blob” in the Pacific and other oceans as well. “We are currently experiencing greenhouse-gas driven global warming enhanced by aerosol removal,” says Ben Booth, a climate modeler at the U.K. Met Office (From Eric. Thanks Eric!).
- Pollution Paradox: How Cleaning Up Smog Drives Ocean Warming. https://e360.yale.edu/features/aerosols-warming-climate-change
NASA
New weather and climate models.
- NASA and IBM Research Apply AI to Weather and Climate: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/blog/nasa-ibm-weather-climate-foundation-model
Climate Time Machine
Global Temperature Change since 1884 is really good.
- Climate Time Machine: https://climate.nasa.gov/interactives/climate-time-machine
Economic Geography
Place
Mapping data in the public interest. An org to address inequality in mapping data. Not sure how it is differentiating itself from OSM. -Introduction article: https://thisisplace.org/introducing-place-mapping-data-in-the-public-interest/
- Map Happenings article: https://maphappenings.com/2024/05/02/place-org/
Sustainability Framwork - Planetary Boudaries
This effort by select economists to quantify planetary sustainability boundaries deserves a lot of attention from Economic Geographers. In Issue 14 I referred to an economic framework by Kate Raworth she calls Donut Economics. The following sustainabilty framework is about the outer edge of the donut, the planet.
- One Planet, Nine Boundaries: https://sustonmagazine.com/2024/05/28/is-the-planetary-boundaries-framework-the-new-sustainability-paradigm/
- Stockholm Resilience Centre: https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html
Iceland
Iceland Fissure Flows
The recent fissures that have opened in Iceland give us a tiny glimpse at what some of the Columbia Basin lava flows must have looked like. There were of course, real volcanic cones, but a majority of the Columbia Lavas were from fissure flows. The remnants of which you can see as basaltic dikes in the landscape.
- Icelandic volcano spews lava in what could be its fiercest eruption: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/30/iceland-volcano-erupts-grindavik-evacuation/
- Drone video with a Geologist explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuXWQ49rTdo
Greenland
Story Maps
Story Maps on the hidden landscapes of Greenland. A whole collection! I like the ones on the under-ice landform analysis and the past history of Greenland.
- A bit odd it’s on the “Antarctic” Glaciers Org site. But I guess ice sheet research has to stick together. https://www.antarcticglaciers.org/glaciers-and-climate/changing-greenland-ice-sheet/greenland-storymap-series/
- The four Story Maps: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/cfae832dc3444613ae1f4e178769783f
UK
York
400 Year Old Map of York. So accurate it “perfectly matched the Ordnance Survey map of 1852”.
Northumberland
This is a working farm, that the farmer specifically calls out as “not rewilding” but is a good example of more sustainable farming.
- 1805 map transforms farm: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-67543068
US
Demographics
Population Shifts: Western U.S. Growth Hot Spots and Cold Spots (from Bob, thanks Bob!)
- Using Python, ArcGIS Pro and ACS Data to model Population Shifts in the Western US: https://geospatialtraining.com/population-shifts-western-u-s-growth-hot-spots-and-cold-spots/
Climate and Economic Geography
This is the right direction. The push toward renewable energy is working.
- Increasing use of renewable energy in US yields billions of dollars of benefits: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/29/renewable-energy-us-financial-benefits
Not sure if this is economic geography, geopolitical news, or what but it shows how hypocritical foes of gun regulations are when it is the US fueling the Mexican cartels with guns.
- Hacked data reveals which US gun sellers are behind Mexican cartel violence: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2024/05/22/mexican-cartels-supplied-trafficked-guns-from-us/73700258007/
California Water
LA’s ownership of the Owens Valley in California (Eastern Sierra)
Mapping Democracy
Democracy Labs Story Maps: