this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2024
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world.  About 1C of total warming.  Second chart:  about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability.  Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases.  About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

No commenters seem to have read the article.

This plant’s US population is extinct in the wild with some being kept alive in sanctuaries.

The plant is native to the Caribbean and there are still wild populations in other parts of the region, as per the article.

Still sad though. Salt water intrusion from sea level rise killed the US population.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Read the article. The plant is not extinct.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Paywall, but I assume they mean extinct in the wild

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Extirpation is the correct word for this occurence

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Sure...but that's well outside the vocabulary of the average US news reader.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Maybe if they saw it being used they'd learn it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yes, they mean extinct in the wild. You can get access to this and all other Washington Post gift links with registration

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Non-paywalled link

The tree cactus persists elsewhere in the Caribbean, including parts of Cuba and the Bahamas. But the stand lost on Key Largo to saltwater intrusion from rising seas and soil depletion from high tides and hurricanes was the only one known in the United States. This coastal plant with the snowy fur is Florida’s latest victim of sea-level rise, fueled by the melting of glacial ice thousands of miles away

With little hope of recovery, the team dug up the last six individuals to bring into human care. Today, about 60 Key Largo tree cactuses are cultivated at two nurseries in Florida while more than 1,000 seeds are kept in storage at Fairchild and at an Agriculture Department seed bank in Colorado.