Some related reporting:
Wildfires have devastated Southern California in the past week, while mainstream media has remained fairly fixated on the wealthier communities and celebrities affected. Meanwhile, the majority of lives lost were in the middle class neighborhood of Altadena, and mutual aid efforts have blossomed across the city to address those affected. This week, Jamie reaches out to writers and organizers in Los Angeles to take a closer look at who will be at the forefront of this ongoing crisis.
Theo Henderson of We the Unhoused speaks to how the unhoused and newly displaced have to navigate city hostility; independent reporter Alissa Walker explores how the fires will continually affect families and the risk of holding the Olympics in LA; Sara Reyes, Maebe A. Girl, and Rachel Sanoff of SELAH talk mutual aid in a time of crisis; and Mychal Threets tells Jamie about the importance of libraries and community spaces in the wake of tragedy.
Finland’s forests are now a source of emissions
Finland’s goal of meeting ambitious climate targets is slipping further out of reach, according to Iltalehti.On Wednesday, the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) released a report confirming that Finland is unlikely to meet the carbon neutrality target set in its climate law by 2035.
A significant new finding revealed that for the first time, Finland’s forests are no longer considered carbon sinks as previously thought — instead, they are now classified as a source of emissions. Finland’s forest biomass no longer offsets emissions from the soil.
According to Luke, the change in the land use sector from a net sink to a source of emissions is explained by increased logging, higher carbon dioxide emissions from peatland forests, and the weakening of the soil sink in mineral soil forests.
Currently, logging and natural losses consume around 90 percent of Finland’s new growth forests, up from just over 70 percent in the early 2010s.
Finland’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2035 requires reaching a balance between emissions and carbon sinks. While emissions, particularly in energy production, have decreased, the major challenge lies in carbon sinks.
According to Luke, the land use sector emitted 11.8 million tons of carbon in 2023, while the target for 2035 is a sink of -21 million tons, leaving a significant gap.
Petteri Orpo’s (NCP) government plans to outline its climate and energy strategy this spring and IS opines that the collapsed carbon sink levels will make climate discussions one of its toughest tasks.
The carbon neutrality goal for 2035 was included in the 2019 government program under Antti Rinne (SDP) and later formalised in the climate law under Sanna Marin (SDP).
An interesting look at preservation of corals:
Maybe appeals in terms of cost to businesses will work :
someone please tell ron desantis!
the third largest barrier reef in the world lies just offshore of florida and here in the keys it is the life of our islands, commercially, recreationally (and all the ancillary buisness outfitting that recreation - fishing, diving, snorkeling, charter boats and private boat sales - big business) nobody wants to see dead coral, devoid of colorful fish, yet this reef is already 90percent dead. climate change and pollution are the big drivers of this destruction with development and dredging silting over and suffocating the living corals that have not already stressed out, bleached in the too hot water - and died.
in the mass bleaching event of summer '23, water temps at depths over 20meters was near 30C and surface temps in Manatee Bay exceeded 40C. bleaching does not mean death, but super stressed organisms are susceptible to any further stresses. this does not bode welll for the future of this hugely important structure that acts to break the most damaging storm surge in a hurricane.
keep cutting down the mangroves and killing the coral and these islands will be wiped smooth in a future megastorm.
My cousin just texted me about the LA fires. They lost everything. They sent before and after pictures of their house. Horrifying—absolutely nothing left.
Oh my god… that’s so awful. Are they insured, at least?
Oh, I would imagine! Pretty upscale house. Or was. She was sad mostly for heirlooms. Fortunately we’ve got some we offered to send. My grandmother’s dining room table, which we don’t use except to put papers and stuff on.
ETA: Thanks for commiserating!
Yeah, that’s the hardest part… heirlooms that can’t be replaced… My best to your cousin… I’m very sorry for everything that they lost.
It’s the magical thinking of a toddler, yet again.
But normal toddlers grow out of that phase pretty quickly. We’re still waiting for Trump to do so.
Was it about Climate Change Apocalypse that Shrub said, I don’t care, I won’t be around. (Rhetorical q-- I know I could just look it up.)
If so, he was wrong. It’s destroying things and he’s still around…depending on where he goes it could very much affect him, and I hope it does.