Only a fast, drastic reduction in greenhouse gases THIS decade will prevent climate breakdown
The science is in – We must aim high and go fast to cool it – We can and we must do it!
photography – Jillian Edwards,
Inset – Narooma pelican, Bette Devine instagram.com/bttdevine/
Our next decade is crucial.The actions we take this week, this month, this present moment are pivotal!
The science shows that every fraction of a degree of global heating will further compound the quickening effects of our current climate trajectory.
That’s the warning of the world’s scientists in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Code Red Report delivered at COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. It is the most comprehensive climate report ever released.
So without rapid, meaningful action on Zero emissions, we will cop an acceleration of extreme weather events. That means ramped up droughts, wildfires, flooding, coastal erosion, sea level rise, and the rapid acidification of our oceans. It is a Code Red not only for human survival, but for our planet’s animals.
Without a fast, meaningful course of action on Zero Emissions by Governments – an exponential crisis of lost habitats and mass extinctions of species will cascade. Our beautiful natural world needs our care and action NOW. It’s alarming, but the good news is that if we act now, we have time to pull CO2 pollution back to safer limits.
But what can I do? Call for action from candidates at the upcoming federal election. Speak up with friends and community – USE YOUR VOTE !
“We share earth with the living world – the most remarkable life-support system imaginable, constructed over billions of years.
The planet’s stability has wavered just as its biodiversity has declined – the two things are bound together.
To restore stability to our planet, therefore, we must restore its biodiversity, the very thing we have removed. It is the only way out of this crisis that we ourselves have created. We must rewild the world.” from A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future., 2020, David Attenborough Available at Moruya Books
This is Australia’s only decade to cool global heating effectively, and to stop the dangerous collapse of our climate and ecosystems as a result of fossil fuel pollution and global heating! This is our chance to change the story, to strengthen our economy, to keep safe our communities and habitats by taking a fast and successful transition into a Zero emissions energy pathway. Let’s boss it in 2022!
It’s getting hot in here! Warming waters
A study by the University of New South Wales released in 2021 and published in the Geophysical Research Letters found that the waters off the NSW far south coast have warmed at more than three times the global average, with Narooma named as a hotspot for global ocean warming.
In OceanCurrent news , Physical Oceanographer Dr David Griffin had this to say in a news item entitled The January 2021 ‘Marine Heatwave’ off Southern NSW :(3 Feb 2021)
“On 23 January (2021) locals reported “extraordinary water temps at Bar Beach Narooma of up to 24 degrees this week” to the ABC. Let’s look at some imagery, starting two weeks back (Fig. 1), or even better, all the imagery for January.
The imagery and the trajectories of the buoys shows some 25-26 deg EAC water starting to flow past Sydney on 5 January, continuing along the continental slope rather than heading offshore as it had been just days before.
By 11 Jan this water has reached the latitude of Narooma, where it starts to wrap around a warm-core eddy that was already there. On 17-19 Jan, some of this very warm water can be seen flowing onto the continental shelf, right up to the coast. By 21 Jan (Fig 2) there is 24 deg water over the whole shelf for about 100km.
So, what’s odd about this? Well, our plots of the SST anomaly show that while 24 deg is not unusual for Newcastle (zero anomaly), it is for Narooma (+4deg). And how unusual? This is what the percentile analysis tells you: very unusual (top decile).
Looking farther afield we see that these observations at Narooma are by no means indicative of conditions beyond 100 to 300km away – most of the Tasman Sea is not anomalously warm at the moment. But the potential for local effects cannot be denied. Events such as this one can bring warm water species to the region that would not normally be there. And what just occurred this year resembles the April event in 2014. “
SOURCE -http://oceancurrent.imos.org.au/news.php#The_January_2021_lsquo_Marine_Heatwave_rsquo_off_Southern_NSW
Little penguin feeding on pelagic fish – credit Deakin University
Little penguin colonies
So what might the warming of coastal waters off Narooma – which have heated by an average of 0.48 degree per decade ( double the rate of temperature rise at Coffs Harbour) mean for colonies of penguins off Narooma at Baranguba – Montague Island?
Baranguba is the biggest breeding colony of little penguins in NSW.
Find out what’s known so far here –
Older research at Baranguba
Important habitat work conducted further north on Snapper Island Nature Reserve, in the Batemans Bay Marine Park.
Nudibranchs on the move?
nudibranch,glaucous atlanticus, Bingie
Tiny indices of far larger forces – global climate change – sea slugs or nudibranchs might sometimes be hard to spot. But they can offer tell tale evidence of a strengthening Eastern Australian Current, changing weather patterns and a warming world.
Read more here!
And there’s not just more sightings of the crazy looking blue ‘sea swallows’ – captured so exquisitely by Eurobodalla photographer Toby whitelaw – on our Nature Coast in 2020.
The usually tropical glaucous atlanticus has arrived in Taiwanese waters for the first time in recorded history! https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/02/14/2003525453
Observe the extraordinary choreography of these kooky blue flotillas on Australia’s east coast -https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-02-13/bizarre-blue-fleet-blows-onto-australias-east-coast/13139456
An incredibly engaging Prof. Daniel Pauly gives us the clearest description of why fish and marine life are heading towards the poles. If you do any listening on this topic, WOOEE, says make it this! https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/fish-moving-polewards-so-they-can-breathe/13173044
Back on Land
Compounded
As if the loss of core habitats, and the deaths and displacement of 3 billion creatures as a result of the Spring-Summer 2019-2020 fires wasn’t enough. In 2021 we had this wakeup news: the bogong moth and the Grey-Headed Flying-Fox are fighting for their survival. Both have officially been placed on the endangered species list.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-09/bogong-moth-grey-headed-flying-fox-endangered/100687642
Furry Icon
And now, in 2022, our internationally renowned and most loved Australian icon, the koala, has also officially joined Australia’s growing list of endangered species. Disease, global temperature rise and the clearing of land for logging and development, account for a rapid decline in our koala numbers.
“The koala has gone from no listing to now being declared endangered on the Australian east coast within a decade. That is a shockingly fast decline for one of the world’s most iconic animals. ” notes Dermot O’Gorman, WWF-Australia’s chief executive.
An inquiry into Koala populations and habitats in NSW, released in 2019 warns that koalas could be extinct in 30 years unless urgent action is taken. https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/inquiries/Pages/inquiry-details.aspx?pk=2536#tab-reportsandgovernmentresponses
Ocean acidification
In this clear to understand description, Bethany Brookshire explains the nexus between polluting fossil fuels and warmer and more acidic ocean water. And why any ocean dweller with a shell is so vulnerable to acidifying oceans.
” The more carbon dioxide people pump into Earth’s atmosphere, warming the planet, the more carbon dioxide and heat slip into the oceans. Warmer and more acidic water is thinning the shells of oysters. But they aren’t the only ocean dwellers facing unwanted home renovations. Anything with a shell is at risk. So, too, may be certain fish. A new study finds that as seawater becomes more acidic, the skeleton of a fish called the little skate stiffens in some places — and gets bendier in others. That could leave this fish better built for walking than swimming.
Explainer: Global warming and the greenhouse effect
Burning fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, releases carbon dioxide, or CO2. In the air, this and other greenhouse gases act like a sweater, trapping heat and raising near-surface temperatures around the globe.
The oceans also absorb CO2. And there it combines with a molecule known as calcium carbonate. This produces a new molecule, bicarbonate. The reaction leaves calcium and hydrogen atoms stranded. Those free hydrogen atoms act as an acid to lower the ocean’s pH.
This ocean acidification strongly affects organisms that make shells from calcium carbonate, such as oysters and lobsters. Fish have a built-in system for dealing with changes in ocean pH. Vertebrates — animals with backbones — tend to keep their blood’s pH levels under strict control, says Sean Bignami. He’s a marine biologist at Concordia University in Irvine, Calif. These animals, he notes, “can’t survive with a lot of variation [in blood pH].” To prevent their blood pH from changing, fish have to be pH micromanagers.
Explainer: Ocean acidification
If a fish’s blood gets too acidic, it extracts a molecule, calcium phosphate, from its food. (This is a calcium atom attached to a phosphate group: a phosphorus atom and four oxygen atoms.) The phosphate is alkaline. And this tends to neutralize the pH of the fish’s blood. Fish are so good at this that they can adjust to acidic waters in only a few hours.”
SOURCE : https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/ocean-acidification-may-ground-swimming-skates
Go Fast! Go High!
As Bush Fire survivor and 350Eurobodalla’s co-ordinator, Jack Egan spells out so clearly –
” Climate change is happening fast, too fast for many animals and plants to adapt to by ordinary evolution. So, those have to either migrate south or uphill to cooler climates. But some species will already be at the limit of their range. “
“We have to watch out for them ‘with our own eyes’ and help them out.” says Jack.
” Our species, homo sapiens, has caused this quick climate change. ”
And the motivation to take action on climate change has never been clearer – “We have to help the plants and animals with whom we share this planet to get through as best we, and they, can.”
Vignettes of awe and urgency – Eurobodalla habitats & creatures
Image credits: Photo Story -Meringo Beach – Julie Taylor Mills, Geopsatial Intelligence Imaging, Deua River, Cicada wings, Beach image – Jenni Knight, Wattle & native bees – Jenni Knight, Hakea & bees – Jillian Edwards, Ashed beaches & marine life -Julie Mia Holmes, Malua Bay burnt forest & sign – Jesse Owens – Forest fire grounds – Beth Boughton, Sugar glider + Black Glossy Cockatoo – Jenni Knight, Shelley Beach marine debris – Julie Mia Holmes, Beetle – Toby Whitelaw,
https://www.facebook.com/350Eurobodalla/
email euro350.org@gmail.com
Check out the IPCC Climate Reports here :
Our local Eurobodalla community already has a solid plan for a Zero Emissions pathway Now we need our Federally elected representatives to act and take Australia there too! Take us to the bridge!