Drought Signals Need For Sustainable Agriculture

By Lucas Edmond

July 20, 2021

As Winnipeggers funnel into air-conditioned buildings to stave off record-breaking heatwaves, Manitoba’s farmers are facing a much deeper crisis.

For avid small talkers who love to discuss the weather, the low river and empty floodways during flood season were the first indications that Manitoba was going to have a summer of extreme conditions. Then the aphids appeared — a small insect that thrives in hot, dry weather — lathering Winnipeg’s canopy with sticky gunk. Finally, reality of the drought’s devastation struck when the West Coast of North America erupted in flames following a heatwave that stretched across several borders earlier this summer.

On July 5, just days after the heatwave, St. Laurent, Man. declared an agricultural state of disaster as potential crop yields continued to dwindle in the face of high aridity and soil exhaustion. Armstrong, Man. was the second rural municipality to declare a state of agricultural disaster on July 9, but it is likely not the last.

As Manitoba’s farmers fight to stay afloat with the support of only 40 per cent of Manitoba’s natural rainfall, a grasshopper infestation — produced by the dry conditions — has begun eating away at the limited vegetables, grains and oats farmers have managed to grow.

Due to the heat and the grasshoppers, a significant portion of crops that are often recycled as feed for cattle have been lost. Many farmers are being forced to cut their losses and sell their herds. Some have decided to prematurely cut their crops to bundle their feed in order to keep their livestock through the winter — forcing them to lose large portions of their annual incomes.

The ecological disaster and its consequential financial impact has stimulated discussions with the provincial government about financial aid to keep the province’s large agricultural sector healthy. However, subsidies for lost incomes should go a step further.

Although droughts have been prevalent across North America throughout the 21st century, this year is shaping up to be the driest in the last century. Record-breaking heat and inconsistent rain due to global warming — compounded by exhaustive industrial agriculture — are destroying the soils, stripping them of nutrients at a rate incomparable to any other period in modern history. Humanity and our methods of production, accumulation and distribution has spurned a new geological epoch now visibly discernable in the stratigraphic record. If the weather continues to become increasingly unpredictable due to our ecological impacts, then something must be done to create a more sustainable and predictable agricultural sector.

The provincial government should take time to consider the benefits of establishing a fund dedicated to farmers who want to transition their efforts away from the unsustainable methods of industrial monoculture cropping that have proven to be unstable during this perilous drought. Although much more expensive and labour intensive, permaculture cropping adopts a land management system dedicated to farming based on a balanced ecosystem that can thrive through tough environmental conditions without the assistance of expensive and detrimental inputs of herbicide, pesticide and artificial fertilizer.

In other words, instead of planting one cash crop that is easy to harvest but tough on the environment, the agricultural sector should look toward planting crops and vegetation that mutually complement each other in their ecological contexts.

Monoculture industrial farmers typically try to avoid using pesticides due to their damaging effects on the ecosystems that surround their plots. However, if the dry conditions and the infestations persist, many farmers — without the capacity to produce natural solutions to the crisis — may have to bite the bullet to protect their livelihood in the short term.

As many biologists from around the world have concluded, killing back pests with artificial products stunts local ecology and the environment’s natural ability to balance itself. Using pesticides kills off vital food sources for various predators, thus unintentionally killing various other species and reproducing the conditions for much worse infestations in the future. Destroying biodiversity is exactly what farmers need to avoid during these periods of agricultural crisis.

By adapting to living with pests and drought, farmers will be investing in the longevity of their yields while simultaneously reducing their industrial emissions. Transitioning into a labour-intensive permaculture system will be a crucial step in making the future of the planet green, but the transition must start with incentives and funding from federal and provincial coffers.

Fundamentally, it is up to farmers to make their decisions in conjunction with government bodies. However, the world is not fixing itself, and sustainable agriculture is a good first step at mitigating the public calamities that lie ahead.

Lead Photo: Climate challenges lie ahead, but governments can reduce risks by investing in food

What Flooding In London And New York Tells Us About The Future of Climate Change

By Hope Talbot

July 13, 2021

Yesterday, parts of London experienced one month’s worth of rain within a day, causing severe flash floods across various areas of the city. Similar incidents of flash flooding have also been reported across several parts of Europe, with Bulgaria, France, and Switzerland all experiencing similar flooding.

This comes after New York experienced similarly severe flooding last Thursday as a result of Storm Elsa, with subways and highways flooded throughout the state.

With America and parts of Europe already experiencing erratic weather patterns, such as record-breaking night temperatures, climate scientists are increasingly worried over the future of weather patterns like this in the coming years.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Euronews Green (@euronewsgreen)

How is climate change affecting flooding?

The likelihood of flooding is significantly increased due to the extreme weather patterns caused by global climate change. Changes in the geography of the land, resulting from climate change, also have a part to play in increasing flooding.

With certain vegetation and other land barriers being broken down as a result of changing temperatures and freak weather patterns, many of the natural preventative measures against flooding are no longer there.

Higher temperatures mean higher rainfall

With America experiencing its hottest June on record, temperatures have soared dramatically. As a result of these higher temperatures, we’re experiencing higher air and water temperatures, increasing evaporation.

With increased evaporation comes increased rainfall, with longer durations as well as higher intensity and frequency of rainfall, too.

Evidence also suggests that temperatures increase at a higher rate above the equator, meaning countries in the Northern Hemisphere, such as America and the UK, are likely to experience more significant temperature changes.

How can flooding be prevented?

Although flash floods may seem uncontrollable, there are several possible steps to ensuring that cities and towns are protected against flooding, with rainwater being distributed in a sustainable way.

Sponge cities

Through ingenious urban planning, cities have been able to use strategic green spaces to absorb excess rainwater for future use, therefore reducing flood risk. In China, the concept of ‘sponge cities’ has become popular, with irrigating gardens and urban farms acting like sponges to soak up excess water.

Urban greenery

As seen in the recent London floods, sewage management became a big issue, with sewage pipes bursting due to flooding. In Europe, green roofs are another innovative solution to reducing flooding risk, with greenery absorbing stormwater run-off, and thereby preventing sewage overflow.

Permeable pavements

A common issue seen within urban flooding is the lack of drainage away from walking paths and roads, with cement being unable to absorb water. An ingenious solution to this is installing permeable pavements, which can absorb water and transfer it to other sources, such as urban green spaces.

Lead Photo: Recent flooding across the UK

Greta Thunberg Aims To Change How Food Is Produced

By REUTERS May 28, 2021

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has set her sights on changing how the world produces and consumes food in order to counteract a trio of threats: carbon emissions, disease outbreaks and animal suffering.  

In a video posted on Twitter on Saturday, Thunberg said the environmental impact of farming as well as disease outbreaks such as COVID-19, which is believed to have originated from animals, would be reduced by changing how food was produced. 

"Our relationship with nature is broken. But relationships can change," Thunberg said in the video marking the International Day of Biological Diversity.

A focus on agriculture and linking the climate crisis to health pandemics is a new angle for Thunberg who has typically focused her ire on policy-makers and carbon emissions from fossil fuels.

"The climate crisis, ecological crisis, and health crisis, they are all interlinked," she said.

Thunberg said the spillover of diseases from animals to humans was caused by farming methods, adding that a move to a plant-based diet could save up to 8 billion tonnes of CO2 each year.

The World Health Organization has said the coronavirus was probably transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, while scientists say 60% of the infectious human diseases that emerged from 1990 to 2004 came from animals.

Meanwhile, demand for alternatives to regular meat is surging worldwide due to concerns about health, animal welfare, and the environment.    

More than two dozen firms are testing lab-grown fish, beef, and chicken, hoping to break into an unproven segment of the alternative meat market, which Barclays estimates could be worth $140 billion by 2029.

The Global Center on Adaptation, which works to accelerate climate resilience, said in January climate change could depress global food production by up to 30%, while rising seas and more intense storms could force hundreds of millions of people in coastal cities out of their homes.

(Reporting by Colm Fulton; Editing by Alison Williams)

Lead photo: Greta Thunberg (Reuters)

Vertical Farming ‘At a Crossroads’

Building the right business model to balance resource usage with socio-economic conditions is crucial to capturing new markets, say speakers ahead of Agri-TechE event

Image from: Fruitnet

Although growing crops all year round with Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) has been proposed as a method to localize food production and increase resilience against extreme climate events, the efficiency and limitations of this strategy need to be evaluated for each location. 

That is the conclusion of research by Luuk Graamans of Wageningen University & Research, a speaker at the upcoming Agri-TechE event on CEA, which takes place on 25 February.

His research shows that integration with urban energy infrastructure can make vertical farms more viable. Graamans’ research around the modelling of vertical farms shows that these systems are able to achieve higher resource use efficiencies, compared to more traditional food production, except when it comes to electricity. 

Vertical farms, therefore, need to offer additional benefits to offset this increased energy use, Graamans said. One example his team has investigated is whether vertical farms could also provide heat.

“We investigated if vertical farms could provide not just food for people living in densely populated areas and also heat their homes using waste heat. We found that CEA can contribute to stabilizing the increasingly complex energy grid.”

Diversification

This balance between complex factors both within the growing environment and wider socio-economic conditions means that the rapidly growing CEA industry is beginning to diversify with different business models emerging.

Jack Farmer is CSO at vertical producer LettUs Grow, which recently launched its Drop & Grow growing units, offering a complete farming solution in a shipping container. 

He believes everyone in the vertical farming space is going to hit a crossroads. “Vertical farming, with its focus on higher value and higher density crops, is effectively a subset of the broader horticultural sector,” he said. 

"All the players in the vertical farming space are facing a choice – to scale vertically and try to capture as much value in that specific space, or to diversify and take their technology expertise broader.”

LettUs Grow is focussed on being the leading technology provider in containerised farming, and its smaller ‘Drop & Grow: 24’ container is mainly focussed on people entering the horticultural space.

Opportunities in retail

“This year is looking really exciting,” he said. “Supermarkets are investing to ensure a sustainable source of food production in the UK, which is what CEA provides. We’re also seeing a growth in ‘experiential’ food and retail and that’s also where we see our Drop & Grow container farm fitting in.”

Kate Hofman, CEO, GrowUp agrees. The company launched the UK’s first commercial-scale vertical farm in 2014.

“It will be really interesting to see how the foodservice world recovers after lockdown – the rough numbers are that supermarket trade was up at least 11 per cent in the last year – so retail still looks like a really good direction to go in. 

“If we want to have an impact on the food system in the UK and change it for the better, we’re committed to partnering with those big retailers to help them deliver on their sustainability and values-driven goals.

“Our focus is very much as a salad grower that grows a fantastic product that everyone will want to buy. And we’re focussed on bringing down the cost of sustainable food, which means doing it at a big enough scale to gain the economies of production that are needed to be able to sell at everyday prices.”

Making the Numbers Add Up

The economics are an important part of the discussion. Recent investment in the sector has come from the Middle East, and other locations, where abundant solar power and scarce resources are driving interest in CEA. Graamans’ research has revealed a number of scenarios where CEA has a strong business case.

For the UK, CEA should be seen as a continuum from glasshouses to vertical farming, he believes. “Greenhouses can incorporate the technologies from vertical farms to increase climate control and to enhance their performance under specific climates."

It is this aspect that is grabbing the attention of conventional fresh produce growers in open field and covered crop production.  

A Blended Approach

James Green, director of agriculture at G’s, thinks combining different growing methods is the way forward. “There’s a balance in all of these systems between energy costs for lighting, energy costs for cooling, costs of nutrient supply, and then transportation and the supply and demand. At the end of the day, sunshine is pretty cheap and it comes up every day.

“I think a blended approach, where you’re getting as much benefit as you can from nature but you’re supplementing it and controlling the growth conditions, is what we are aiming for, rather than the fully artificially lit ‘vertical farming’.”

Graamans, Farmer and Hofman will join a discussion with conventional vegetable producers, vertical farmers and technology providers at the Agri-TechE event ‘Controlled Environment Agriculture is growing up’ on 25 February 2021.

Warehouse Becoming Vertical Farms — And They’re Feeding New Jersey

Image from: New Jersey 101.5

New Jersey's vertical farms are transforming agriculture by helping farmers meet growing food demand.

New Jersey Agriculture Secretary Doug Fisher said that while conventional farming in outdoor fields remains critical, vertical farming has its advantages because of its efficiency and resistance to pests and thus less need for chemicals.

Vertical farming is the process of growing food vertically in stacked layers indoors under artificial light and temperature, mainly in buildings. These plants receive the same nutrients and all the elements needed to grow plants for food.

Vertical farms are also versatile. Plants may be growing in containers, in old warehouses, in shipping containers, in abandoned buildings.

"That's one of the great advantages — that we can put agriculture in the midst of many landscapes that have lost their vitality," said Fisher.

ResearchandMarkets.com says the U.S. vertical farming market is projected to reach values of around $3 billion by the year 2024.

The one drawback is that its operational and labor costs make it expensive to get up and running.

Image from: AeroFarms

In the past decade, however, vertical farming has become more popular, creating significant crop yields all over the state.

AeroFarms in Newark is the world's largest indoor vertical farm. The farm converted a 75-year-old 70,000-square-foot steel mill into a vertical farming operation. AeroFarms' key products include Dream Greens, its retail brand of baby and micro-greens, available year-round in several ShopRite supermarkets.

Kula Urban Farm in Asbury Park opened in 2014. Vacant lots are transformed into urban farms and there's a hydroponic greenhouse on site. That produce is sold to local restaurants.

Beyond Organic Growers in Freehold uses no pesticides and all seeds and nutrients are organic. There's a minimum of 12,000 plants growing on 144 vertical towers. On its website, it says the greenhouse utilizes a new growing technique called aeroponics, which involves vertical towers where the plant roots hang in the air while a nutrient solution is delivered with a fine mist. It also boasts that by using this method, plants can grow with less land and water while yielding up to 30% more three times faster than traditional soil farming.

Vertical farms in New Jersey help feed local communities. Many are in urban areas and are a form of urban farming.

Fisher predicts that vertical farms will be operational in stores and supermarkets around the state.

"It's continued to expand. There's going to be many, many ways and almost any area in the state has the opportunity to have a vertical farm," Fisher said.

Is AppHarvest the Future of Farming?

Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are red-hot right now, with investors clamoring to get into promising young companies.

In this video from Motley Fool Live, recorded on Jan. 28, Industry Focus host Nick Sciple and Motley Fool contributor Lou Whiteman discuss AppHarvest, one such SPAC that is looking to disrupt the agriculture industry. Here are the details on what AppHarvest wants to do, and a look at whether the company represents the future of farming.

Nick Sciple: One last company I wanted to talk about, Lou, and this is one I think it's -- you pay attention to, but not one I'm super excited to run in and buy. It was a company called AppHarvest. It's coming public via a [SPAC] this year. This vertical farming space. We talked about Gladstone Land buying traditional farmland. AppHarvest is taking a very different approach, trying to lean into some of the ESG-type movements.

Lou Whiteman: Yeah. Let's look at this. It probably wouldn't surprise you that the U.S. is the biggest global farm exporter as we said, but it might surprise you that the Netherlands, the tiny little country, is No. 2. The way they do that is tech: Greenhouse farm structure. AppHarvest has taken that model and brought it to the U.S. They have, I believe, three farms in Appalachia. The pitches can produce 30x the yields using 90% less water. Right now, it's mostly tomatoes and it is early-stage. I don't own this stock either. I love this idea. There's some reasons that I'm not buying in right now that we can get into. But this is fascinating to me. We talked about making the world a better place. This is the company that we need to be successful to make the world a better place. The warning on it is that it is a SPAC. So it's not public yet. Right now, I believe N-O-V-S. That deal should close soon. [Editor's note: The deal has since closed.] I'm not the only one excited about it. I tend not to like to buy IPOs and new companies anyway. I think the caution around buying into the excitement applies here. There is a Martha Stewart video on their website talking up the company, which I love Martha Stewart, but that's a hype level that makes me want to just watch and see what they produce. This is just three little farms in Appalachia right now and a great idea. This was all over my watchlist. I would imagine I would love to hold it at some point, but just be careful because this is, as we saw SPACs last year in other areas, people are very excited about this.

Sciple: Yeah. I think, like we've said, for a lot of these companies, the prospects are great. I think when you look at the reduced water usage, better, environmentally friendly, all those sorts of things. I like that they are in Appalachia. As someone who is from the South, I like it when more rural areas get some people actually investing money there. But again, there's a lot of execution between now and really getting to a place where this is the future of farming and they're going to reach scale and all those sorts of things. But this is a company I'm definitely going to have my radar on and pay attention to as they continue to report earnings. Because you can tell yourself a story about how this type of vertical farming, indoor farming disrupts this traditional model, can be more efficient, cleaner, etc. Something to continue paying attention to as we have more information, because this company, like you said, Lou, isn't all the way public yet. We still got to have this SPAC deal finalized and then we get all our fun SEC filings and quarterly calls and all those sorts of things. Once we have that, I will be very much looking forward to seeing what the company has to say.

Whiteman: Right. Just to finish up along too, the interesting thing here is that it is a proven concept because it has worked elsewhere. The downside of that is that it needed to work there. Netherlands just doesn't have -- and this is an expensive proposition to get started, to get going. There's potential there, but in a country blessed with almost seemingly unlimited farmland for now, for long term it makes sense. But in the short term, it could be a hard thing to really get up and running. I think you're right, just one to watch.

Advice For New Vertical Farmers: Grower Spotlight on Andrew Worrall

Last week we spoke about running a farm at LettUs Grow. What excites you about vertical farming? 

It’s the future of the industry. Also, the amount of salad that these farms can produce for their local community. We want to be able to eat salad all year round and we import to make that happen. However, just a small farm can easily provide for its local community, very efficiently and all year round. The sustainability element is also exciting: with our salad there’s no food miles, it’s very minimalistic. You could use an electric van or bike to distribute this crop if you wanted to. It’s a step forward in terms of what we need to do to take care of our planet. 

What do you think are the biggest downsides to vertical farming?

It’s still a new technology and it can be expensive. The biggest roadblock facing the industry is that we need more people and companies to collaborate together to make sure we can build these farms at a sensible rate, so we can provide farms to anyone. We want to be able to provide farms to people, communities and countries that don’t have a lot of money, so that they can provide affordable fresh produce to local people. 

How has vertical farming impacted your life?

Massively!  I wanted to find my passion, a job that I loved - that was very important to me. It’s satisfying to be in a position now where I’m very happy to be doing what I do and I look forward to going into work. I was happy to make the move from London to Bristol. I would have moved even further if it meant being able to continue working within this industry.

Image from: LettUs Grow

How do you see vertical farming playing a part in the future? 

When indoor farming first came about, it had a reputation of being competition for outdoor farming, which just isn’t the case. There’s so much we can’t grow that outdoor farming can provide, such as cereal crops. I’m glad we’re at a stage where indoor and outdoor farms can start to work together to optimise both methods. With these new relationships, there should be a good increase in the amount of indoor farms you’ll be seeing. What LettUs Grow offers with DROP & GROW™ is an exciting project because that’s a 40ft shipping container which can be placed pretty much anywhere. It’s not that big - it could go in a car park or behind a restaurant, but actually provide quite a lot of salad to that area. 

How much of our food should be grown this way? 

Good question. If you had asked me a while back I would have just said salad, but now I’ve changed my mind. Indoor farming can have a massive impact on propagation, especially aeroponics, because of how we aerate and nourish our roots. We could start lettuce for greenhouse projects and we can also propagate tomatoes, strawberries and tree whips. Propagating trees in this way could potentially be hugely beneficial and it’s something we want to do more of. 

We can also quickly grow large amounts of microgreens, baby leafs, herbs and we can grow fruiting crops like strawberries. We are slowly chipping away and it’s really exciting. I’m waiting to see if I can ever say I’ve grown or propagated every crop that can be grown in these farms! 

What do you think are the biggest benefits of vertical farming? 

How fast these crops can grow! The turnover can be as short as 5 days from seed, depending on the crop. Also how clean it can be - I’m very dedicated to making sure these farms are built to ensure they are easy to be maintained and clean. The most exciting part is the crop growth rate though - it’s incredible how fast our crop grows from seed to plate. In a very well maintained growing calendar, which Ostara® is great for supporting, you can optimise your beds so that the day you harvest can also be the day you germinate onto that same bed. Your farms can be forever providing salad at very fast rates. 

Image from: LettUs Grow

What was the biggest change you encountered during your years indoor farming?

Moving from being a production grower to an R&D grower. It has been a great change! As a production grower I knew what I needed to know about growing the plant safely and getting it onto a plate so it was good for the consumer. Now I’m fully optimising, learning and understanding the plants completely, so that I can help the grower that I used to be. We spend a lot of time on crop recipes to make sure that whoever we sell our farms to can start up very quickly and they won’t have to spend months developing their crops. If they have the customers and clients behind them, they can buy DROP & GROW and start producing salad as soon as it's been commissioned. 

What was the biggest change you encountered in the industry?

More and more people are speaking about what’s going on in the industry and getting involved. I get so many messages on LinkedIn with people who want to get into this career. It’s exciting to see that indoor growing is a career people can access now. When I was developing my skills I didn’t know I would end up in indoor farming. There are more opportunities than ever before. For example, our Crop Technician is doing a placement here for 2 years. The aim is that they can gain the skill sets and knowledge they need to then go off and do the same practice in any farm they want. 

What advice do you have for people who are looking to start a career in growing? 

Reach out to companies who are already out there. You could start off part-time or as an assistant. If you are patient and dedicated then it’s a journey I promise you won’t regret. It takes a lot of work, but the outcome is amazing - you’ll be learning so much about this new technology. You’ll also build great relationships: there are so many amazing people in this industry who are so interesting, with different backgrounds, who are willing to share their knowledge. You can always learn more and other people are a great source of that. 

What about for those looking to start a vertical farming business?

Do your homework.  There are people out there who you can reach out to and it’s very easy to get information. It’s very easy to get excited about the idea and jump straight into it, because it is exciting and can be very rewarding, but it’s really important to do it step by step. Know how to scale properly, learning the differences between a small and larger farm. Understand how many people you’ll need and the logistics. I’d also advise people to get some practical work experience before you buy. You want to start the company knowing the tricks of the trade. 

Image from: LettUs Grow

LettUs Grow Blog: www.lettusgrow.com/blog/advice-for-vertical-farmers

The Race Is on To Grow Crops In The Sea And Feed Millions of People

With the quality of arable land declining and seawater encroaching on fertile cropland, researchers are trying to find a way to make crops grow in seawater

  By CHRISTINA COUCH

View fullsize

17 June 2020

Chen Hanquan / WIRED

In December 2015, as representatives from United Nations member states were finalizing what would become the Paris Agreement on climate change, Duncan Cameron stood before a crowd of delegates and warned them about an environmental catastrophe happening right beneath their feet.

View fullsize

A soil biologist and co-director of the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Sustainable Food, Cameron had long known that the amount of farmland capable of growing nutrient-rich crops was shrinking, but he didn’t know how fast. For the previous year, Cameron’s team had analyzed the scattershot data available on arable land loss, and what they found was disturbing: in the past four decades, the world lost up to one-third of its arable land to soil degradation and resulting erosion. Without alternatives, already fragile agricultural systems are on the verge of collapse, raising the prospect of a world filled with farms that can’t grow enough food.“

It’s quite a terrifying amount,” Cameron says. “We hear that we can solve a lot of these problems in terms of food insecurity by wasting less and getting more efficient, but that isn't going to give us everything we need.” Now, an emerging group of startups and researchers are convinced that answers to the impending food crisis may not lie on land at all – instead they’re looking to the ocean and to feed future populations with crops grown on floating farms and fed by seawater.

These ambitious initiatives target a thorny mess of environmental and humanitarian issues — freshwater and land scarcity, global hunger, crop security, and agriculture’s enormous carbon footprint amongst others — but the scientific and logistical challenges they face are enormous. In a field where there are few easy answers, one problem looms above all others: what do we do about all the salt?

Soil scientists and farmers have waged war against salt for decades. As sea levels rise, salt levels are creeping up in the rivers and underground aquifers that irrigate fields – particularly those low-lying areas close to vast river deltas. Across the world, farmland is drying out which raises salt levels and interferes with nutrient uptake and damages tissues. Excessive salt causes massive global crop loss — an estimated £21.7 billion each year — and that's expected to increase as factors like sea level rise and higher-intensity weather events driven by climate change push ocean water further into farmland, hitting the poorest coastal communities hardest.

Once there, salt requires significant resources to remove from soil — the most common methods involve large amounts of freshwater, which is already scarce for an estimated four billion people worldwide — sending researchers on a long-running race to find staple crops that can grow despite constantly increasing salinity. Several countries including China, India, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates have developed crop varieties that can withstand some soil salinity, but the real white whale is a staple crop that can thrive regardless of how much seawater is thrown at it.

“In principle, it could be done, but it's complicated,” says Exequiel Ezcurra, a plant ecologist at the University of California, Riverside who studies desert and ocean ecosystems. Ezcurra says that creating seawater-tolerant crops would require at least one, and possibly both, of the basic biological mechanisms plants like black mangroves have adapted to survive in salty waters. One mechanism is freshwater filtration in the roots, which for staple crops would require fundamentally altering the root’s dermal tissue to keep salt out. The other is specialised glands in the leaves that excrete salt as the plant pumps seawater throughout its system.

Changing a staple crop to have either mechanism is a challenge so big, many researchers aim for far more modest gains in salt tolerance and aren’t yet gunning for crops that grow in straight seawater. Plant breeders have been working on salt-resistant crops for decades but in rice – a crop notoriously sensitive to salinity – even the most salt-resistant varieties can’t cope with anything like the saltiness of seawater. “I'm not saying that nobody will be able to do it. Probably somebody will at some point,” Ezcurra says. “I simply have never seen a patent or anybody being able to do that” now.

Luke Young and Rory Hornby filed for a provisional patent in February for a technology they believe will break the seawater tolerance barrier. Young and Hornby are the cofounders of Agrisea, a Canadian startup that’s working to develop gene-edited salt-tolerant crops with the goal of soon growing them in floating farms placed in sea-flooded plains or anchored directly in the ocean.

Agrisea’s proposed method involves first isolating stem cells from crops like rice, then using CRISPR gene editing technology to insert a DNA sequence specialised to the plant. The sequence targets one of eight different genes, each chosen because the only place in nature where all eight are “switched on” is in plants that have naturally adapted saltwater tolerance. The sequence alters how the gene expresses, then stem cells are grown into a full plant that produces its own seeds armed with the newly edited gene. Follow the same process for editing the remaining seven genes, and the Agrisea team says you’ll have a plant that can grow in the salty sea without fertiliser, freshwater, or pesticides.

Many researchers have edited single genes for salt tolerance, but editing a gene network is an approach Young and Hornby say are unique to Agrisea. But they’re not at the finish line yet. Thus far, Young and Hornby are working to grow rice plants in water one-third the salinity of seawater and plan to have small farms floating off the shores of Kenya and Grand Bahama Island by the end of the year. Young says that he’s confident the process will work because similar strategies have been used in the past to gene edit plants for other traits and “because I'm not proving something, I'm copying something. I'm copying what nature has already been able to do.

”Julia Bailey-Serres, director of the Center for Plant Cell Biology at the University of California, Riverside, studies crop resilience and the molecular physiology of rice. She says that researchers routinely edit plants to knock out a gene’s function, but editing in a way that changes specific amino acids, which likely would be required for growing crops in the ocean, has only been done by a few researchers worldwide and not yet for the purposes of salt tolerance. That more granular type of editing will become more feasible in the future, she says, ”but I don't know if that’s going to be in two years or 10 years.”Bailey-Serres adds that she would be excited to see Agrisea succeed and that any tolerance increases beyond one-third ocean salinity would be a huge win in places like Vietnam and Bangladesh where rice paddies are bombarded with seawater.

Agrisea’s approach to arable land scarcity relies on cracking the salt tolerance problem, but other teams are opting to sidestep the issue entirely. Floating farms that reduce demand for arable land have long been key to survival in many non-Western nations. These crops thrive in freshwater bodies — like Myanmar’s Inle Lake, which locals have relied on for food possibly since as early as the nineteenth century — in buoyant beds that bob along the surface as monsoons and floods sweep through. Floating farms have also gained interest in Western cities. Over the last few years, research groups and architectural firms in the UK, Spain, and Italy amongst others have produced designs for floating vertical farms and greenhouses that suck up seawater from the outside and desalinate it to nourish hydroponic crops grown inside.

These projects push crops out into the ocean, but Yanik Nyberg’s strategy is to bring the ocean in. Instead of making new space for crops offshore, Nyberg’s Scotland-based company Seawater Solutions takes degraded coastal farmland, seeds it with naturally salt-tolerant herbs like samphire and sea blite, then floods the area by removing seawalls or pumping in water from the ocean to create an artificial salt marsh. In this new wetland ecosystem, crops grow without fertilisers, pesticides, or freshwater. They also hold soil in place, preventing erosion, and feed on nitrates and carbon, both of which over-accumulate in waters near human populations due to factors like agricultural runoff and CO2 emissions. A solar-powered irrigation system recycles the remediated water back to its original source.

Yes, There Really Is An Arugula Shortage

Unexpectedly wet weather and a serious fungal infection have disrupted the rocket supply chain. Thanks to climate change, we can expect more volatility in the future.

View fullsize

January 27th, 2020
by Jessica Fu

In any given week, the Bix Produce Company in Little Canada, Minnesota, ships between 1,600 and 2,000 pounds of arugula to restaurants and cafeterias throughout the Twin Cities region. Like most wholesalers, Bix sources its winter leafy greens from farms in the desert Southwest and Florida, where it’s warm enough to grow the produce at this time of year. The field-to-fridge journey typically takes around four days. But this week is not a typical week.

Right now, growers in the Southwest are suffering from a severe arugula shortage, brought on by an unexpectedly colder and wet winter growing season. The conditions have paved the way for the spread of a fungal disease called downy mildew. Simultaneously, growers in Florida—which supply a smaller portion of winter greens than the Southwest—are holding clients to strict buying limits, Eric Reitz, a buyer for Bix, tells me. That means distributors can’t make up the difference by going to another supplier: “There’s just not enough volume to cover it.”

You may have been tipped off about arugula’s woes while grocery shopping or ordering lunch. A number of restaurants have announced that they’ve started to substitute spinach in its place because of low supplies. One reporter shared on Twitter a photo of an arugula pizza they’d ordered, which contained no more than a pitiful pinch of “half-leaves.” I began to suspect that there might be some kind of deficit two weeks ago at Trader Joe’s after my cashier commented offhandedly that arugula hadn’t appeared in the retailer’s inventory tracking system for a few days.

“In Florida, we shouldn’t be having any rain right now, it’s considered the dry season.” 

For Del Bene, a produce wholesaler serving the Detroit region, the shortage has been an issue since the beginning of 2020. Vice president Mike Del Bene tells me it’s the most intense arugula shortage the company has experienced in nearly 30 years. (Keep in mind, he noted, arugula wasn’t nearly as popular three decades ago.)

“We definitely haven’t been harvesting much the last couple of weeks,” says Matt McGuire, chief agricultural officer of JV Smith, a vegetable farming company in Yuma, Arizona. “In the desert Southwest, we’re supposed to be dry. We usually don’t get rain much, even in the wintertime. But through a part of November and December, we were having storms dropping anywhere from a quarter to an inch of water every seven to 10 days.” And those were the exact conditions that welcomed in the downy mildew, which had been waiting in the weeds.

Once infected, arugula leaves become spotted with yellow lesions that can make them fall off and even kill an entire plant. As a pathogen, downy mildew spreads rapidly and can kneecap the yield of an entire field. Interestingly, the mildew is specific to arugula. “Cross infection does not take place,” says plant pathologist Steve Koike, formerly of the University of California Cooperative Extension. That means that the mildew pathogen spreading around Arizona’s arugula fields can’t transfer over to, say, spinach and lettuce, too. However, that also means that there’s no catch-all fungicide that can treat the issue either.

Representatives from three other growers in Arizona shared similar concerns about the impact that downy mildew has had on the recent arugula harvest. In an unfortunate coincidence exacerbating the shortage, producers in Florida, have had their share of harvesting woes due to wetter-than-usual weather, too.

“In Florida, we shouldn’t be having any rain right now, it’s considered the dry season,” says Eberhard Mueller, co-owner of Satur Farms, which sells packaged leafy green products. Heavier than normal rains in December have disrupted Mueller’s harvest; he tells me that his operation has encountered more and more moisture throughout his time in the business—something he suspects is related to climate change.

Bacteria and other molds can continue to flourish even after arugula has been packaged and shipped.

That falls in line with the deluge of weather-related ag difficulties that farmers have encountered in recent times. Just last year, farms in Minnesota and North Dakota experienced colder and wetter weather than usual, creating a sugar shortage that compelled the Department of Agriculture to raise import limits from Mexico. A few months earlier, flooding in the Midwest and the Great Plains submerged some of America’s most productive farmland underwater. In California, farmers are calling abnormal weather patterns the “new normal” and trying to adapt accordingly. And there’s no shortage of research linking rising temperatures with erratic and extreme weather events.

Chances are, the further away from Florida and the desert Southwest you are, the less likely you are to find arugula at the grocery store right now. For one, mildew-infected arugula is vulnerable to what is known as “secondary spoilage,” according to Trevor Suslow, an extension research specialist at the University of California, Davis. In essence, Suslow says that bacteria and other molds can continue to flourish even after arugula has been packaged and shipped. “Those things can grow even under refrigeration temperatures,” he explains. This means that infected arugula probably won’t survive the journey from Yuma to your local supermarket, at least not in a condition that you’d still like to eat.

Then there’s the issue of cost. As with most retail products, a drop in arugula supply causes prices to rise, explains Teressa Lopez, administrator of the Arizona Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement. Consequently, some cost-averse retailers might simply opt-out of buying rocket salad until the market stabilizes. Most growers I spoke with estimated that the arugula harvest would gradually return to “normal” in the next few weeks, though none were specific about timing—and understandably so.

Right now, all companies like Bix and Del Bene can do is keep customers in the know about the shortage, and hope that it lets up soon. As Reitz of Bix says: “It’s been a bumpy ride.”

ENVIRONMENT, HOME FEATURE ARUGULA CLIMATE CHANGE SHORTAGE SUPPLY CHAIN

View fullsize

Jessica Fu

Jessica is a reporter for The New Food Economy. Reach her by email at jessica.fu@newfoodeconomy.org and on Twitter @JessTiaFu.

Will Buffalo Become A Climate Change Haven?

View fullsize

JEREMY DEATON

DECEMBER 5, 2019

The Western New York City possesses a distinct mix of weather, geography, and infrastructure that could make it a potential climate haven. But for whom?

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, Maria Robles saw rainfall so severe that it punched a hole through her roof and flooded her home in San Juan. “We lost everything inside the house,” she said. “Everything, everything, everything.”

The storm marked the beginning of a long journey that took her from the convention center in San Juan to a hotel in Florida to an airport in Philadelphia, concluding with an 11-hour bus ride to Buffalo, New York — her husband had once visited the city as a teenager and remembered liking it. She arrived with two of her four children in tow. It didn’t take long for Robles and her family to settle into their new home. She landed a job in a factory that makes face cream, lip balm, and other personal care products, while her husband found a job in a plastics factory. Robles said she still struggles with the frigid weather, but she would gladly take a snowstorm over a hurricane any day.

View fullsize

Robles may not have known it when she moved in, but Buffalo is unusually well-insulated against climate change. Rising temperatures have yet to produce more heat waves or extreme rainfall in Western New York. Experts say the region’s cool climate and ample freshwater could make it an attractive destination as the planet heats up. And Buffalo has room to grow — the city’s population has dropped by half over the last 70 years of industrial decline.

These facts have not gone unnoticed. In his 2019 State of the City address, the mayor dubbed Buffalo a “Climate Refuge City.” Civic leaders are hopeful that the coming wave of climate refugees will revive Buffalo, filling its vacant lots and abandoned storefronts.

“Buffalo is stepping up and preparing to welcome this new type of refugee,” said the city’s mayor, Byron Brown. “We believe that we can accommodate people who have experienced displacement due to harsh weather and natural disaster.”

As Buffalo becomes a more appealing place to migrate, can it remain a haven for refugees like Robles, who come in search of affordable housing and a decent job? Or will Buffalo become a cold-weather haven for the professional class? With ample space for newcomers, Buffalo doesn’t look like cities typically at risk for gentrifying. But what happens if high earners from vulnerable cities like Miami and New York flock to the shores of Lake Erie? Will Buffalo be prepared?

“With climate change, the world is going to suck, but Buffalo may suck less.”

In 2016, SUNY Buffalo State climate scientist Stephen Vermette set out to show how climate change had made life harder in western New York with the hope of galvanizing locals to take up arms against the carbon crisis. He scoured weather records going back to 1965 and found that temperatures have risen a little more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit over that time, roughly consistent with the rest of the Lower 48.

TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, PLEASE CLICK HERE

Scientists Consider Vertical Farming Ahead of Changing Climate

View fullsize

DECEMBER 13, 2019

View fullsize

by Anthony Perkins TWEET  SHARE

A UA researcher says the technique could help solve future food concerns.

Scientists are focusing on new ways of farming that can be climate-smart and sustainable.

University of Arizona agricultural and biological engineering professor Joel Cuello is among those developing vertical farming methods that do not use soil or depend on the weather but use water more efficiently.

He thinks interest in sustainable growing methods increased with the growth of the middle class in countries like China.

"That really brought to the fore the critical significance of having our food supply increase because that is a humongous middle class that has been produced, not only in China but all over the world," said Cuello.

Cuello added scientists are considering the same techniques for growing food in future habitats on the moon and Mars.

MORE: AGRICULTURE, CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENT, NEWS, SCIENCE

Lead Photo: Vertical farmed plants are fed with liquid nutrients instead of soil.Needpix.com

Report: Sea Level Rise To Affect 3x More People Than Anticipated

View fullsize

AUTHOR: Katie Pyzyk@_PyintheSky

October 31, 2019

Dive Brief:

• Rising sea levels will severely impact nearly triple the number of people previously estimated to be affected, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications and co-authored by the CEO of Climate Central. The data suggests coastal flooding (at least once per year) will reach levels where 300 million people currently live, and more than 150 million people live in locations that could be permanently inundated by 2050.

• Climate Central's interactive map that accompanies the study shows old projections compared with the expanded risk areas. The map indicates that whole cities could be inundated; in the United States, for example, most of New Orleans and large portions of New York are among the numerous communities shown to be underwater or prone to frequent, severe flooding by 2050.

• The areas of most concern are concentrated in developing countries in Asia. More than 70% of the world's population currently living on implicated land are in just eight Asian countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. However, the increased flood risk touches every continent.

Electric revolution: How are cities overcoming EV range anxiety?

The number of U.S. electric vehicles is expected to skyrocket in the coming decades. But how are cities and utilities preparing for that influx?

Dive Insight:

Coastal communities worldwide must prepare for more difficult times than previously anticipated, according to the study. Cities with dense populations like New York and Mumbai are projected to experience serious flooding impacts if no actions are taken to prevent the negative consequences. Flooding effects are projected to be widespread, but major global cities could experience particularly harsh consequences that carry to other areas. 

Jakarta, Indonesia, is a city projected to face large swaths of permanent inundation. The city has long been known to be sinking, in part due to land management decisions, exacerbating flooding caused by rising sea levels. The Indonesian president announced this year that the multi-island nation's capital would move from Jakarta to a new location on the island of Borneo. Moving an entire governmental hub to an area known for its beaches and rainforests undoubtedly will turn out to be no small feat.

Coastal flooding reportedly will have profound economic and political implications for the affected countries, which could have a ripple effect on other countries. The expense of relocating people away from rising waters — such as the Jakarta case, or otherwise — is incredibly expensive both for citizens and governments. New infrastructures must be built and others reinforced to support an influx of citizens moving to a new area in a short amount of time. 

Besides everyday infrastructure such as transportation, utilities or buildings, coastal cities will need to reconsider the integrity of their flood prevention infrastructure. The study suggests that levees, seawalls and other preventative measures already in place will need to be expanded to cover more territory as sea levels rise. In addition, existing coastal infrastructure likely will not protect against the enhanced threats without continued maintenance and upgrades.

"[E]ven in the US, sea-level rise this century may induce large-scale migration away from unprotected coastlines, redistributing population density across the country and putting great pressure on inland areas," the study says.

Beyond the raw expense of moving populations away from a coast, the study warns against social and political instability. Historically, conflict erupts in areas that experience a large-scale migration, especially in resource-constrained areas. The study recommends further research should be performed on the timing, locations, and intensity of global migrations related to flooding.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

Recommended Reading:

• NATURE COMMUNICATIONS

• New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding

Greenhouses In Southern France Demolished By Extreme Weather

This week’s weather around the Mediterranean caused a lot of damage in the south of France; the French government declared a state of natural disaster. In Béziers, 6 gallons per square feet fell in 24 hours. Other municipalities in France and in Spain were also severely affected. The episode inevitably has consequences for the fruit and vegetable sector.

“We have not drawn a report yet, but several crops have been affected in France and in Spain,” reports Charles Farran de Ritex, wholesaler based in Perpignan. “In France, it is the season of autumn and winter vegetables like artichokes and lettuce. For those products, water is not necessarily a bad thing, and we hope that there won’t be too much damage. The apple and pear orchards are probably also affected. Other products like the tomatoes are grown in greenhouses so they will not be directly impacted. However, several greenhouses have been destroyed by the storm in the region of Nîmes and Avignon.”

In Spain, the Mediterranean episode also had some impact. “Grapes were severely affected by the water,” explains Charles, who imports a lot of his products from Spain.

Nearly 108,000 square feet of greenhouses blown away
As he was about to pick his lettuce, Eric Vidal saw a small tornado, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, blow away 108,000 square feet of his farm located at the heart of the Jardins Saint Jacques. He reported to the newspaper L’Indépendent that “everything is ruined, both the facilities and all the lettuce of course, which is mostly produced for fast food restaurants. We were supposed to harvest in 10 days, it’s a dry loss. Luckily, I have insurance.”

The cause of the damage is a devastating blast limited to one corridor. More minor damage has been reported in the same area. “When I arrived at the greenhouses, I understood right away that something had happened. The greenhouses in the back were completely crushed. It was like a bull ran through, destroying everything. The surprising thing is that the other facilities, right next to them, were not affected at all,” explains Eric.

The farm had already suffered from a similar situation in January 2009 with storm Klaus. “After the expert’s report, we will have to disassemble, clean and rebuild everything. We won’t get any lettuce until next summer.” The farm is likely to lay off part of its staff temporarily.

Source: lindependant.fr 

View fullsize

Publication date: Mon 28 Oct 2019
© HortiDaily.com / Contact

‘We Really Need To Wake Up Quickly’: Al Gore Warns of A Looming Food Crisis Caused By Climate Change

View fullsize

Former vice president Al Gore backstage at the Time 100 Health Summit in New York in October. (Craig Barritt/Getty Images For Time 100 Health)

View fullsize

By Amanda Little

Oct. 22, 2019

CARTHAGE, Tenn. — “I’ve done so many presentations I just never get nervous anymore, but I was nervous before this one — so much new material,” Al Gore said last week as he launched into the latest iteration of “An Inconvenient Truth,” the slide show that won him an Oscar, a Nobel Prize and a Grammy. Gore had invited 300 guests — chefs, farmers, food executives, and activists — to “The Climate Underground,” a two-day conference last week at his family farm here that explored the intersection of food, climate change and sustainable agriculture.

Some 40 panelists, most of them farmers and scientists, took the stage to discuss topics from healthy soil to carbon sequestration, but the main event was Gore’s slide show, delivered with his characteristic mix of bravado and humility, detailing the impacts of climate change on food systems worldwide.

Will technology or tradition save the global food supply? Why not both?

“This is in Georgia; a heatwave cooked these apples before they could be harvested,” he said, issuing forth rapid-fire examples alongside bone-chilling images and video. “This is the Australia wine region that’s going to be untenable. . . . Rice yields in 80 percent of Japan have declined due to the rising temperatures. . . . In nearby Murfreesboro, Tenn., we’ll see a quarter decline in soybean yields within the next 30 years.”

Gore spent the better part of 90 minutes detailing the pressures of drought, heat, flooding, superstorms, “rain bombs,” invasive insects, fungi and bacterial blight on food producers. “We may be approaching a threshold beyond which the agriculture that we’ve always known cannot support human civilization as we know it,” he declared in a low growl. “That’s something we need to avoid.”

Alice Waters, who Gore said catalyzed his interest in food and who had volunteered to cook the vegetarian lunches served to attendees (using local, seasonal and organic ingredients, natch), said the presentation was bittersweet: “I am deeply depressed. But on the other hand, the solution seems so, so unbelievably transformational. . . . We can restore the health of the planet while also restoring the health of people and communities.”

Naomi Starkman, editor-in-chief of ­Civil Eats, which covers news on sustainable agriculture, was similarly fraught: “Gore spoke with such devastating and fierce clarity, connecting the dots between the ways agriculture is implicated in and impacted by the climate crisis. But it also felt like a hopeful moment wherein agriculture, and farmers in particular, are taking a front-and-central place in solving one of the most urgent issues of our time.”

Mark Bittman, the former New York Times food columnist, was more circumspect: “There are ways in which the conversation here isn’t quite realistic. Regenerative agriculture is not about increased yield, it’s about producing more of the right food in the right ways. ... But kudos to Al Gore for taking it on. There’s no more important conversation to have.”

I sat down with the former vice president to dive deeper into the details. Edited excerpts of our conversation follow:

Q: The main way most humans will experience climate change is through its impact on food: Is this a fair statement?

A: Ever since 2015, it’s been clear that the impact on the food system was underestimated in previous years. And there is a natural resistance that many of us have had to getting too concerned about the food system. Food insecurity had been declining steadily for the last couple of decades, just as extreme poverty had been declining. But in the last couple of years, that too has changed, and the principal reason is the climate crisis.

Africa, by mid-century, will have more people than either China or India. And by end of century, more people than China and India combined. And you combine that with the impact of the climate crisis on subsistence agriculture in Africa, the importance of subsistence agriculture in Africa, the poor quality of the soils, the persistent problems of land tenure, and the economic and social structures that discourage good stewardship of the land, then, wow. We really need to wake up quickly to the serious crisis that could develop there.

We have no idea yet how to feed the planet without frying it

Q: What are the most crucial policy measures that need to be taken to encourage regenerative farming in the U.S. and climate-smart agriculture broadly?

A: We need leadership to completely refocus USDA to completely change the system of farm subsidies to stop the massive subsidies for crops that are not eaten by people, that go to bio­fuels, that go to animal feed. We should eventually work our way toward a system for compensating farmers for the buildup of soil carbon. That’s not possible yet, partly because we are still developing a measurement of soil carbon buildup that is necessary for the confidence of policymakers and voters that this is not some boondoggle. But eventually, that’s where we need to be.

Q: On one hand you have Bill Gates saying, “The time has come to reinvent food,” and on the other you have Alice Waters and others saying, “Let’s de-invent food, let’s go back to preindustrial agriculture,” essentially. What do you think the role of tech should be?

View fullsize

Alice Waters, at The Washington Post in 2017, has advocated for a return to traditional farming. (Kristoffer Tripplaar/For The Washington Post)

A: We want a single, magic answer that’s going to solve a big, complicated problem, and I think that in agriculture and food and climate, these systemic approaches are usually more likely to be successful. But technology and science has an important role to play. Measuring soil carbon is one. That team at the Salk Institute has a really interesting proposal to modify roots to sequester more suberin, a form of carbon that stays in the soil for a long time. If their hypothesis is correct, the root structures of food plants can be made much more robust in a way that simultaneously sequesters more organic carbon and increases yields. So that’s technology that is worth exploring and evaluating.

In general, the solutions in agriculture are more to be found in going back to some traditional approaches that worked but were discarded because of the pressure for short-term profit maximization. And that includes crop rotation. It includes cover crops to put key chemicals and nutrients back in the soil after it’s been used for a particular cash crop. It includes rotational grazing, which is not without controversy but has been proven to work, at least on farms of this scale.

Climate change is sapping nutrients from our food — and it could become a global crisis

Q: What role must consumers play in the shift toward sustainable food systems and climate resilience?

A: There’s a danger in focusing on consumer behavior. There’s a danger of giving the impression that the solutions to the climate crisis have to be shouldered by women and men who care enough about it to change their personal choices. They do. But as important as it is to change a lightbulb, it is way more important to change policies. And in order to change policies, we have to have new policymakers. So the most important role that individuals can play is in taking their concern and passion for a better world into the voting booth and turning out in large numbers to overcome the dominance of our political system by big money.

Q: Some permaculture and regenerative farmers that I met with have said that it’s more expensive to farm this way. They can’t afford their own products. How do we address that?

A: I don’t want to deny the premise of your question, but some regenerative farmers have saved a lot of money on their input costs. Now, how do we develop markets for healthier, organic, regenerative-agriculture food? That’s one of the reasons we’re incorporating efforts to get school systems and hospitals and nursing homes and long-term care facilities to provide markets for healthier food.

Q: Still, there are real concerns from ­middle- and low-income consumers that this is an elitist movement.

Solar panels on a home in Maryland in 2016. (Benjamin C Tankersley/For The Washington Post)

A: It hasn’t been very many years since solar panels were considered an elitist movement. And you heard exactly the same critique. “For those who can afford them, that’s fine. But don’t tell me that’s going to be a significant development, because only the wealthy elite are doing it.” Well, that’s not true anymore, because that was the beginning of a movement that drove scale and accelerated the cost reduction curve. And now you’ve got people putting rooftop solar on and community solar, and it is really taking off dramatically. But it started as an elitist movement. The same thing is beginning to be true of electric vehicles. If we can democratize and widely distribute the soil carbon assessment technologies, I don’t think it’s that hard to imagine technology driving the cost down to the point where this can spread more rapidly.

Q: The agriculture industry is so interesting because it is a major driver of the climate problem, but it is also more vulnerable than any other industry to the pressures of climate change.

A: Many pioneers of regenerative agriculture are finding that their farms are more resilient to drought and flood and extreme weather than with the older established farming techniques. Building the health of the soil does not mean just more organic carbon. It also means building the ability of the soil to absorb the higher rainfall events and to withstand drought events more effectively.

Q: One scientist said to me the most delicious fruits are dying because the specialist crops, the ones that we love the most, are hardest to adapt to new circumstances. Of all the crops that are most vulnerable, which would be the hardest for you to live without?

A: Chocolate. Cacao. Absolutely.

Little is author of “The Fate of Food: What We’ll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World” (Harmony, 2019).

Amazon Plans To Have 100,000 Electric Delivery Vans On The Road By 2030

View fullsize

09.20.19

BY MICHAEL GROTHAUS

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has revealed that his company has placed an order for 100,000 electric delivery vans from Michigan-based electric vehicle company Rivian. Amazon says its order of 100,000 vehicles is the largest order ever of electric delivery vehicles. It is just one of the ways Amazon pledged on Thursday to help combat climate change.

Dave Clark@davehclark

Our fleet is Electrifying! Thrilled to announce the order of 100,000 electric delivery vehicles – the largest order of electric delivery vehicles ever. Look out for the new vans starting in 2021.

Amazon says that the goal with the vans is to have all 100,000 of them on the road by 2030. Yes, that’s a decade away, but the company will begin the Rivian van rollout much earlier—in 2021. By 2022, Amazon says it hopes to have 10,000 of the vehicles on the road. And once all 100,000 hit the roads by 2030, Amazon says it will save 4 million metric tons of carbon per year.

The announcement was made as part of Amazon’s Climate Pledge, which sets the goal of meeting the historic Paris Agreement 10 years early—by the year 2040. Bezos says that by 2030 it wants Amazon running on 100% renewable energy, and by 2040 it wants the company to be a net-zero carbon producer. The Paris Agreement’s goal is for companies and countries to hit these metrics by 2050.

Announcing its new set of climate action plans, Bezos said:

We’re done being in the middle of the herd on this issue—we’ve decided to use our size and scale to make a difference. If a company with as much physical infrastructure as Amazon—which delivers more than 10 billion items a year—can meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early, then any company can. I’ve been talking with other CEOs of global companies, and I’m finding a lot of interest in joining the pledge. Large companies signing The Climate Pledge will send an important signal to the market that it’s time to invest in the products and services the signatories will need to meet their commitments.

Global Warming: Grapes Are Ripening Faster

View fullsize

©pixabay

Posted by Almut Otto | Sep 4, 2019 

How does a vintner know that the grapes are ripe? By the traditional method, they taste the grapes themselves. Like this: put the grape in your mouth, bite into it, let the juice run out and in doing so determine the sugar and alcohol content. And it is precisely the latter that could become an issue in the traditional growing regions over the next few years and decades. According to a study by the University of Bern, the grape harvest in Burgundy has been starting 13 days earlier on average than it has in the past six centuries.

Grapes are sensitive to changes in temperature

This result is on the one hand interesting for winemakers and wine lovers. This is because grapes are very sensitive to temperature and rain. Higher temperatures make the grapes ripen faster. And the resulting increase in dryness also results in a higher alcohol content. Which is not what is supposed to happen,  not just because the trend is towards lighter wines. Wines with too high an alcohol content also taste slightly ‘burnt,’ In order to avoid this, the artful technical skill (for which the Germans are world-renowned, as it happens) of the master vintner is now in high demand.

According to Frank R. Schulz, head of the communications department at the German Wine Institute, German winegrowers are able to benefit from the current situation, at least for a short while. “We are now in a position to make the most of it. World vine varieties such as Merlot or Sauvignon Blanc, which were previously only native to southern Europe, are now growing here. Whereas in Spain the grape harvest is much lower than in previous years, in the main due to drought. And even in northern Germany, such as on Sylt or in Schleswig-Holstein, attempts are now being made to cultivate grape varieties. And last but not least, sparkling wine viniculture in the south of England also shows that wine regions could shift over the long term. In order to be able to react to climate changes, the southern regions are working on improving their varieties. For example, a thicker skin makes the grapes somewhat more resistant.

Grapes act as a climate proxy

Due to their sensitivity to weather, grapes are also very useful for getting a peek into past climates. This means that the start of the harvest is ideal as a kind of climate proxy. It is an indirect indicator of change, as we have seen in other natural archives. These include tree rings, ice cores and corals. Plus, historical documents like the grape harvest. The scientists from Bern used a series of data from the grape harvest of the past 664 years for their analysis.

“We did not predict that the rapid rise in temperatures since the 1980s would be so clearly visible in this time series,” explains Christian Pfister, Professor Emeritus of Climate and Environmental History at the University of Bern and a member of the Oeschger Centre for Climate Research.

He was responsible for the study together with colleagues from Switzerland, France and Germany.

Records of wages paid to harvest workers

The main author of the study, Thomas Labbé, who conducts research at the universities of Burgundy and Leipzig, meticulously reconstructed as far back as 1354 the data from grape harvests in Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy. He used a large number of unpublished archive sources, including information on wage payments to grape pickers, records from Beaune City Council and newspaper reports. The uninterrupted recording of grape harvest data is the longest reconstructed time series of its kind and ended in 2018.

“The harvest records clearly show two phases,” says Thomas Labbé. Until 1987, the grapes were typically harvested on or after 28 September. Since 1988, however, the grape harvest has started on average 13 days earlier. Analyses of the data show that hot and dry years were unusual in the past, but have since become normal in the last 30 years. The research team consisting of historians and natural scientists has validated its time lines with the help of detailed temperature records taken over the past 360 years in Paris. This made it possible to estimate temperatures between April and July for the Beaune region throughout the 664 years covered by the dataset.

From research to action

“The transition into a period of rapid global warming after 1988 is very clear. And it is obvious to everyone that the past 30 years have been extraordinary,” Christian Pfister states.

“I hope that our recent work will help people realistically assess the current state of our planet’s climate and finally begin to take action.”

This unique reconstruction of the Burgundy grape harvest has just been published in the journal “Climate of the Past” published by the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

SUPPORT US!

Innovation Origins is an independent news platform, which has an unconventional revenue model. We are sponsored by companies that support our mission: spreading the story of innovation. Read more here.

On Innovation Origins you can always read articles for free. We want to keep it that way. Have you enjoyed this article so much that you want to contribute to independent journalism? Click here:

| Tags: climate change, German Wine Institute, Grapes, University of Bern

America’s Great Climate Exodus Is Starting In The Florida Keys

Bloomberg

View fullsize

Lori Rittel’s home in Marathon Keys, on Sept. 16 . Photographer: Jayme Gershen/Bloomberg

Mass migration begins as coastal homes are bulldozed in the state facing the biggest threat from climate-driven inundation.

By Prashant Gopal September 20, 2019

Lori Rittel is stuck in her Florida Keys home, living in the wreckage left by Hurricane Irma two years ago, unable to rebuild or repair. Now her best hope for escape is to sell the little white bungalow to the government to knockdown.

Her bedroom is still a no-go zone so she sleeps in the living room with her cat and three dogs. She just installed a sink in the bathroom, which is missing a wall, so she can wash her dishes inside the house now. Weather reports make her nervous. “I just want to sell this piece of junk and get the hell out,” she said. “I don’t want to start over. But this will happen again.”

View fullsize

Lori Rittel . Photographer: Jayme Gershen/Bloomberg

The Great Climate Retreat is beginning with tiny steps, like taxpayer buyouts for homeowners in flood-prone areas from Staten Island, New York, to Houston and New Orleans — and now Rittel’s Marathon Key. Florida, the state with the most people and real estate at risk, is just starting to buy homes, wrecked or not, and bulldoze them to clear a path for swelling seas before whole neighborhoods get wiped off the map.

By the end of the century, 13 million Americans will need to move just because of rising sea levels, at a cost of $1 million each, according to Florida State University demographer Mathew Haeur, who studies climate migration. Even in a “managed retreat,” coordinated and funded at the federal level, the economic disruption could resemble the housing crash of 2008.

The U.S. government’s philosophy has been that local officials are in the best position to decide what needs to be done. Consequently, the effort has so far been ad hoc, with local and state governments using federal grants from the last disaster to pay for buyouts designed to reduce the damage from the next one.

“The scale of this is almost unfathomable,” said Billy Fleming, a landscape architecture professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “If we take any of the climate science seriously, we’re down to the last 10 to 12 years to mobilize the full force of the government and move on managed retreat. If we don’t, it won’t matter, because much of America will be underwater or on fire.”

If not for the $174,000 that Rittel, 60, owes on her mortgage, the Montana transplant would have left long ago. Insurance money is insufficient to rebuild, so she applied for one of the buyouts, administered by the state with $75 million of Irma-relief cash from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as long as it lasts.

View fullsize

The inside of Lori Rittel’s home. Photographer: Jayme Gershen/Bloomberg

Florida accounts for 40% of the riskiest coastal land in the U.S., according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, but it’s done little so far to pull people back from the coasts and lags behind states such as New Jersey, North Carolina, and Texas. Across the country, the effort is still more theory than practice, even as a consensus among planners grows that “managed retreat” may be the best of bad options.

This year, HUD made available $16 billion for climate resilience, its first dedicated fund to fortify for future storms. Nine states, plus Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, will decide how to use it, whether to build sea walls, put houses on stilts or move people out of the way. The money is a fraction of what’s needed, and the process is moving at the speed of government.

A study by the Natural Resources Defense Council this month found that buyouts by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which responds to disasters, take five years on average to be completed. By that time, many homeowners have rebuilt or moved. Similar data isn’t available on the grants from HUD, which also provides money to demolish homes.

“It’s a slow-motion emergency,” said Rob Moore, director of NRDC’s water and climate team. “But it’s happening right now. These last three hurricane seasons show us what it kind of looks like.”

A FEMA spokesman said the agency supports the voluntary acquisition of flood-prone structures and provides the grant funding, but the prioritization of projects happens at the local level first and then by the state acting as the recipient. The agency believes each county floodplain manager and local official knows the needs of their communities best and are responsible for land usage and permitting.

About 6 million Floridians will need to move inland by century’s end to avoid inundation, according to Hauer, the demographer, in a 2016 paper. By then, about 80% of the nearby Keys, the archipelago that includes the tourist mecca of Key West, will be underwater. About 3.5 million people would be flooded in South Florida’s Miami-Dade and Broward, the two counties with America’s biggest exposed populations.

“Florida’s doing it at a really small scale,” said A.R. Siders, an assistant professor at the University of Delaware who studies climate adaptation. “Compared with the new housing units going up in South Florida, I don’t know if that would even cancel out.”

Here Comes the Flood

Number of people at risk by county from a sea-level rise of 1.8 meters

View fullsize

Florida State University demographer Matt Hauer

But Florida runs on tourism and real estate revenue, and managed retreat is a phrase that makes real estate listing agents nervous. But there’s another Florida housing bubble waiting to pop. The Union of Concerned Scientists warns of a coming housing crash — from Miami to San Mateo, California — on a scale worse than last decade’s foreclosure crisis, caused by climate change — from flooding to heatwaves and wildfires.

Cities are only starting to grapple with where to resettle residents, and how to transport communities and hometown identities. And homes on higher ground will also demand higher prices, worsening an affordability crisis.

Fifteen years after Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana is trying to relocate the Native American settlement of about 100 people on the Isle de Jean Charles, a narrow island that lost 98% of its land over the past six decades to climate change. It’s working with a $48 million grant from HUD for buyouts and to help them start anew on a 500-acre sugar cane field 40 miles north that the government will populate with homes and businesses. Importantly, it will be 9 feet above sea level. All but three of about 40 households have signed on.

``They’re starting to scale this up,’’ said Jesse Keenan, a social scientist at Harvard University who also specializes in climate adaptation. ``This is about building up institutional knowledge on how to do this.’’

​​​​​​​New Jersey has a $300 million fund for buyouts and has purchased hundreds of houses since Superstorm Sandy in 2012, though like Florida, even more, homes have been built on the coast in the meantime. Harris County, Texas — which includes Houston, ravaged by a series of storms including 2017’s Harvey — has done more than 3,000 FEMA buyouts, more than any other county in the U.S., according to NRDC.

In Monroe County, Florida, where Rittel lives, the planning is just beginning. The county has applied for $5 million of the HUD money — the state maximum. Already, about 60 local homeowners have applied, so it will require triage. Senior citizens, families and residents in the riskiest flood zone would get priority, said Assistant County Administrator Christine Hurley.

Rittel isn’t sure how long she can hang on.

Her insurance payout of about $100,000 would cover repairs to the 640-square-foot house. But the county requires that when more than 50% of a home is damaged, that it be completely rebuilt to meet modern storm-resiliency codes and — in her flood zone — on stilts. That would cost at least $200,000, money she doesn’t have.

She dreams of resettling in Key West or Homestead, a safer spot on the Florida mainland.

“I’d like to take the money and run,” Rittel said. “But I’ll have to buy something on stilts. I’m not buying anything on the ground down here ever again.”

This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 220 news outlets to highlight climate change.

Statements On The IPCC’s New Special Report - The Pressure To take Action Is Enormous

Statements on the IPCC’s new Special Report “The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate” from Hans-Otto Pörtner and AWI Director Antje Boetius

Bremerhaven/Germany, 25 September 2019.

Today, in Monaco, the IPCC will present its new Special Report on the ocean and the Earth’s frozen regions. The report summarises observations of and projections on climate-based changes to ecosystems in the ocean, coastal, polar and alpine regions, describes the likely impacts of these changes for society and presents a range of options for adaptation. Over the past three years, 104 researchers from 36 countries have contributed to the report.

In the statements below, Prof Hans-Otto Pörtner, Co-Chair of the IPCC’s Working Group II, and AWI Director Prof Antje Boetius share their thoughts on its significance.

Drastic emissions reductions and an ambitious adaptation strategy could reduce risks

"The ocean and the cryosphere – the frozen regions of our planet – play an important part in the Earth system, and in all our lives. Though they may seem very distant to some people, in fact we all directly or indirectly depend on the functions provided by the ocean and cryosphere. The effects of climate change, which we can already see first-hand in our own country, reflect how our actions are reshaping the environment: temperatures are rising, both on land and at sea. The ocean is losing oxygen and becoming more acidic, with serious consequences for fragile ecosystems like coral reefs, and for our ability to feed the global population through fishing and aquaculture. Glaciers and ice sheets around the planet are melting, causing the sea level to rise. Low-lying coastal regions and islands are increasingly being flooded. At the same time, alpine regions now face growing risks, e.g. of landslides and avalanches, not to mention changes in precipitation, which also affect many regions downstream from them. The effects of these changes often hit people who are least responsible for them, and who hardly have the resources to respond to them.

Because the ocean and cryosphere are already reacting to the current carbon dioxide emissions, and these changes are both long-term and irreversible, far-reaching risks (e.g. extreme weather events and sea-level rise) can no longer be avoided – but their effects can be mitigated. We have the ability to assess these threats and technologies that can be used to dramatically reduce emissions and to support ambitious adaptation strategies. Yet the key is to create suitable framework conditions that will allow us to limit the changes in the ocean and cryosphere. In this way, we can preserve the vital ecosystems that provide the basis for all life.

The IPCC’s recently released Special Report “The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate” summarises observations of and projections on essential changes – from the snow-capped alpine peaks to the coastal regions and the ocean’s depths, from the polar regions to the tropics. It describes the consequences for ecosystems and for us humans, as well as adaptation strategies and paths to a climate-friendly, sustainable and secure future. In addition, the report highlights the benefits of limiting global warming to 2 degrees compared to the mean temperature prior to industrialization (the goal set by the governments in the Paris Agreement), or even to 1.5 degrees.

Accordingly, the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere represents a further valuable resource for the decision-makers attending the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit, and the Climate Week in New York, as well as the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Chile this December (COP25)."
Professor Hans-Otto Pörtner, AWI marine biologist and Co-Chair of Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

The Arctic as an early-warning system

“Our researchers’ observations and projections regarding changes in the ocean and cryosphere confirm what the report summarises: carbon dioxide emissions, which have continued to rise steadily around the globe, are producing concrete consequences for all life on Earth, including humankind. The fact that all of these trends have intensified is troubling and constitutes a call to take action more quickly and invest in adaptation strategies. In this regard, the Arctic region serves as an early-warning system – although regional changes can also shape global processes.”
Professor Antje Boetius, marine biologist and Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI)

The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) conducts research in the Arctic, Antarctic and oceans of the high and mid-latitudes. It coordinates polar research in Germany and provides major infrastructure to the international scientific community, such as the research icebreaker Polarstern and stations in the Arctic and Antarctica. The Alfred Wegener Institute is one of the 19 research centers of the Helmholtz Association, the largest scientific organization in Germany.

Why Maldives Needs To Declare A State of Climate Emergency - IMMEDIATELY (PT. I)

As Maldives gears up for Climate Strike on Sep 20, the UN Climate Summit on Sep 21 and COP25 in Dec, the time is ripe for the nation's leaders to acknowledge the urgent climate crisis and rise to action. Part I of a II part mini-series on the Climate Crisis.

View fullsize

Why Maldives needs to declare a state of climate emergency - IMMEDIATELY (PT. I). IMAGE: JAUNA NAFIZ / THE EDITION

Rae Munavvar

View fullsize

19 September 2019

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as of right now, 11 percent of the world’s population is vulnerable to droughts, floods, heatwaves, extreme weather events and sea-level rise caused by climate change. As the state of the Earth worsens, in as little as 2-3 decades, 100 percent of Maldivians stand to lose their livelihoods, heritage and homelands… presumably in that order.

Most people are aware that Maldives, presenting little in the way of world-wide carbon emissions and one of the least contributors to global warming and climate change on this shared planet - is fated to be first in line for the repercussions, along with a further 800 million vulnerable people.

As an apocalyptic future approaches with alarming speed, rather than give rise to action, many seem to have settled for apathetic outlook. Though no longer ignorant, urgent discourse and mitigation have taken a backseat to idle post sharing.

Perhaps this hurdle can be blamed on human psychology, for historically, discussions about a possible end of days have never gone down well. However, donning ‘eco slogan’ tees and hashtag fuelled rants, though immensely satisfying, is sufficient no longer. Beach cleanups, exporting plastic waste for recycling or stocking government offices with recyclable gear though fantastic, are only a start. There is a larger message that needs to be addressed and delivered to the masses.

By confronting the difficult truth of climate change and accepting the inevitable call to arms, this low-lying country not only succeeds in owning its reality - Maldives is presented with an opportunity to set an example for the world, leading the fight. To quote Bristol councillor Carla Denyer, the woman responsible for bringing the emergency movement to England, "It is the first step to radical action."

Sure, ‘Green Ambassadors’ from Maldives have done a remarkable job of voicing out these concerns to the global community - but this is more about the average Amina and Ali coming to terms with the fact that the threat of climate change is an issue they will most likely have to deal with in their lifetime, and providing everyone the best chance at survival.

Coming together and presenting a united front may be the only leverage the nation has in demanding that larger, more powerful nations of the world accept their share of responsibility and join islanders on the battlegrounds.

Sands of Time

At the time of the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report, which provided the scientific input into the Paris Agreement, the goal was to maintain global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius.

In 2018, IPCC shifted course and began advocating for temperatures to be kept below 1.5 degrees celsius, describing the difference as “a significantly lower risk of drought, floods, heatwaves and poverty” for hundreds of millions of people.

The document states, “without increased and urgent mitigation ambition in the coming years leading to a sharp decline in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, global warming will surpass 1.5°C in the following decades, leading to irreversible loss of the most fragile ecosystems, and crisis after crisis for the most vulnerable people and societies.”

Terrifyingly, IPCC’s 1.5 Special Report further emphasizes that presently, humans have only a 67 percent chance of reducing global temperatures below the 2 degree Celsius limit.

Data recorded in 2016’s Second National Communication of Maldives (NCM) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) also supports IPCC’s claims, noting “future climate projections indicate that the extreme flooding events are likely to become more frequent in the future with changing climate”.

NCM then goes on to declare, “despite the fact challenges, Maldives is determined to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change”. But how ready are we really?

Consider psychologist Abraham Maslow’s five levels of human needs, a theory most of us are familiar with to better comprehend the severity of today’s climate crisis, and the impact it has on the people of Maldives at the most basic levels.

1. Food

In the event of any extreme climate activity, let alone sea level rise, the country’s ability to both produce and store food will, without a doubt, be compromised. Similarly, as nearly 90 percent of the food consumed in the country is imported, any impact on food production in the source countries will also directly affect food security.

Food reserves in the capital city, as with the remaining 200 inhabited islands, are located in close proximity to the sea. As such, preparations for future storage needs are not in effect.

View fullsize

Please Click Here To View The Video

UNDP Maldives✔@UNDPMaldives

The race is on. For small island nations such as , winning the race against #ClimateChange is no longer a choice but a necessity for future existence. Time is running out and we need immediate #ClimateAction! #ClimateAction4Maldives @AkikoFujii1

97

7:15 AM - Sep 17, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

On the subject of food production, environmentalists allege that agricultural centres like that of Thoddoo Island, are not pressured to farm sustainably and that simple measures such as utilizing rainwater for watering are not in place. Further, their unchecked profuse use of pesticides doesn’t just make the food dangerous to consume - it also contaminates groundwater and may leak into surrounding waters.

Fish and seafood are essential to the islanders’ diet. As such, changes in sea temperature and ocean acidity will affect fisheries. The issue of marine debris is also a concern, along with rising levels of untreated or improperly disposed sewage, which is the case for most islands. Though the expanding local tourism industry has encouraged cleanups, the wastewater situation has not benefited at all.

That’s not all. Microplastics have been discovered in the bodies of various species of fish and to account for dissolved toxins is nearly impossible. For a country that relishes concentrated fish products like ‘Rihaahukuru’ - this is far more than a footnote.

Aside from proper waste management and storage, adaptive measures for food could also include incentivizing other means of food production, for instance vertical farms, small-scale hydroponic farms and so forth. Harmful agricultural practices should be discouraged by taxes and bans.

Targeted awareness programs about the immediate impact of marine pollution could be conducted. A system where fishermen and boat crews could profit from fishing out waste from the ocean could be implemented.

2. Water

Certainly, water deserves to be ranked far higher than food as scientists estimate humans can go 3 weeks without food but less than 100 hours without water, that too in “average temperatures” and “without exposure to sunlight”, rendering the fact irrelevant to Maldives. However, the issue of water here is slightly murkier.

Most Maldivians have already noticed drastic changes to the usually predictable monsoon seasons. Sources from the MET Observatory confirmed that climate change has already begun to affect precipitation patterns in the Maldives.

According to NCM, overall decreasing trends in annual rainfall were observed over the 3 regions of Hanimaadhoo, Malé and Gan. The total number of rainfall days per year is also decreasing. Adding to the issue is that groundwater is hardly an option anymore; the freshwater lens used in our well water have become salinized and polluted in a majority of islands.

mariyam mohamed @mariez001

Another Male in creation? #ActOnClimate #ClimateStrikeMV #ClimateEmergency https://twitter.com/litmustimes/status/1174242550472945664 …

Jenny Latheef@LitmusTimes

Replying to @AdamIshamMV and 10 others

Residents of Fuvahmulah need to question on the affects of their fresh water supply! Now all r supplied frm the island’s fresh water supply. All of which is flushed to the sea! This will deplete the island’s fresh water supply & affect the kilhis too.

See mariyam mohamed 's other Tweets

“Traditional rainfall patterns have changed over the last decade. If you’ve monitored precipitation or even asked elder locals to compare Hulhangu Moosun these days with the traditional Nakai Calendar, the difference is clear, “ revealed Sharafulla Thoha Hussain, technician at Maldives Climate Observatory based in Hanimaadhoo Island, Haa Alif Atoll.

Devoid of natural freshwater sources, the archipelago as a whole currently relies on desalination, a process that is heavily fossil fuel dependent. Even as resources deplete and prices rise, several alternatives are already on the market. Technology that allows for absorption of water from the atmosphere exists and there are forms of water extraction using clean energy that must be explored.

Furthermore, rather than abandoning traditional and more sustainable methods like the collection of rainwater, islands can be designed to capture heavy downpour. Instead of wasting water during showers and storms as happens now, this natural resource can and should be utilised.

3. Shelter

One of the most important factors to account for in this regard are rising global temperatures, after all, 17 of the 18 warmest years in the history of the planet took place after 2000. In the Maldives, NCM reveals temperatures are increasing in the capital city by approximately 0.3 °C per decade, although in this case the urbanization of the area bears most of the responsibility; however, the fact that the ‘replication of Male’ is a growing trend, makes it quite concerning.

Maldives, as vacation-goers often describe it, is a land of endless summers. But what was a blessing stands soon to become a curse - our asphalt and concrete homes will no longer be tolerable a few degrees later.

Cooling our homes uses up fossil fuels we will soon not be able to acquire. “One of the best championed answers is to examine ancestral resources and marry them with elements of modern tech to curate solutions with a smaller carbon footprint”, offered a Maldivian property developer.

Presently, 44% of all Maldivians and their homes, stand within 100m of the sea. Even for those settled further inland, nearly 80% of the nation is below 1.5 meters of mean sea level. In the event of a natural disaster people have nowhere to seek refuge.

To begin with, the building of high-standing homes, is a decent adaptive measure for low-lying islands as it would alleviate immediate threats of flooding. Presently, in most islands including the capital area, the majority of homes are based at ground level.

Finland’s answer was the introduction of floating villages six years ago and has had remarkable success. Equipped with energy-saving systems and technologies, prefabricated homes are designed to withstand extreme winds and wave conditions. Even if it means abandoning island ways of life, testing the far more resilient floating homes is something that must be considered.

Prior to that though, stands the protection of nature's own barricades - the mangroves. wetlands and coral reefs which together not only mitigate the effect of wave swells, tsunamis and storms, but also absorb 10 times more carbon from the atmosphere than tropical forests.

For example, another idea may be to test the Modular Artificial Reef Structure (MARS) introduced at Summer Island Resort, which was initially developed by Austrailian designers as a wave break, but in this case one that allows for water and sand movement thereby possibly preventing erosion, while also welcoming coral growth. There are many other promising projects to look into as well.

Adam Isham@AdamIshamMV

Environmental protection, public health & livelihoods are linked. Delayed action to protect the remaining parts of the mangrove , a clear violation of basic human rights, specially the rights of 400+ @DrHussainHassan @naeembe @hrw @hrcmv #SaveKulhudhuffushiKulhi
@AfaHusayn

13

11:40 AM - Sep 8, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

View fullsize

See Adam Isham's other Tweets

4. Energy

Maldives has become extremely, unforgivably dependant on non renewable - as a single glance around the typical household or office building demonstrates.

As fuel prices climb, these lifestyles that have only just become accustomed to modern conveniences are set to become incredibly restricted, and fast. Heaters, coolers, inter-atoll travel, intra-atoll travel, cooking, learning - without energy normalcy in the island nation will need to be redefined, drastically. Soon even this article, may be far out of reach.

Renewable energy is the future; and in the long run, it will prove to be several times cheaper. In addition to halting the subsidization of fossil fuels and incentivizing clean energy, the government could commence initiatives tailored around projects for which the country has already served as a testing ground such as Swimsol’s Floating Solar Panels, Professor Tsumoru Shintake’s The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University Wave Energy Converter units (WEC-units), and more.

Frankly, few countries are better poised to enter a rapid fossil fuel phaseout or has more reason to actively seek out and begin testing, implementing and subsidizing clean energy alternatives, than Maldives.

5. Security

The issue of security is best described by Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid at the United Nations Security Council meeting on the impacts of climate-related disasters on international peace and security, this January.

He asked, “While we are still busy trying to decide which forum of the United Nations must address which aspect of climate change, in our countries across the world; lakes are drying up depriving fresh water to tens of millions of people. Unseasonal droughts are leaving millions of people homeless. Hunger and displacement are leading to conflicts. And entire nations are sinking under water. What is a bigger security risk than this?”

Nevertheless the country is yet to see such statements translate into action at home. The same disruptive unsustainable development continues, antagonizing and destroying the fragile ecosystems.

Intensifying climate events pose serious threats to the Maldives, as demonstrated by the devastating loss caused by the 2004 Tsunami, where development was set back decades.

Aisha Niyaz@aishaniyaz

I want a military that proactively strives to build our resilience and well prepared to tackle the #ClimateCrisis please @MNDF_Official @NDMAmv @presidencymv @mvpeoplesmajlis https://twitter.com/koamasfurolhi/status/1174497830011977730 …

Sha@koamasfurolhi

Replying to @koamasfurolhi

What do you think is more important for us? A military that waits in anticipation of a foreign attack or a military that actively tries to increase resilience of islands and are prepared to manage disasters all across the country?

17

9:30 PM - Sep 18, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

See Aisha Niyaz's other Tweets

Although Tsunami and Weather warning protocols are in place, if citizens fail to understand the gravity of the current climate situation, appropriate response will not follow. Indeed mitigation measures concerning security begins with informing people of the ‘undiluted’ truth.

6. Relationships

There’s no telling, really, how our human connection will suffer in the coming years. First there is the loss of culture and heritage. Next, few countries have a population as dispersed as the Maldives; and when damage extends to travel and communication, relationships will face immense stress.

Internet, which itself carries a large carbon footprint, has nevertheless improved the lives of Maldivians in ways that are hard to describe. Having to ration power will mean that digital lives will be one of the very first compromises Maldivians may need to sacrifice in favour of the essentials; security, energy, water, and food.

Can any of us recall what life before the world-wide-web was really like? Is being disconnected in that fashion something we even want to remember?

For ‘digital generations’ at least, this might be one of the most compelling arguments as to why Maldives needs to spend money researching and implementing clean energy solutions.

Devastation In Progress

For most of the innovations mentioned in each category, wide-scale applications are yet to be seen. What the country’s leaders are waiting for, is just as much a mystery.

Marine experts state that rise in ocean temperatures to levels causing serious and widespread coral bleaching was first recorded in 1988, followed by 1998, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 - it doesn’t take a genius to understand the incidence is increasing and fast. The latter three may not have been mass bleaching events, but effects are significant.

The IPCC report expresses high confidence that if global temperatures can be stabilized at a maximum of 1.5 degrees celsius, 70 - 90 percent of coral reefs will deteriorate. If these temperatures exceed the 2 degrees celcius mark the report calculates with ‘Very High Confidence’ that 99 percent of reefs will die. Of course if that happens, the human race will follow shortly after.

Surveys conducted over the last two decades lead to clear deductions that at least 80 percent of coral reefs in the Maldives, are already severely damaged. The tourism industry works overtime to create a facade of perfect isles - despite existing legislation that prohibits excavation of sand, destruction of marine habitats and so on. The constant ‘beach nourishment’ that occurs in resorts, unjustifiable development of harbours, newly reclaimed resorts and airports, removal of ‘Heylhifah’ (vegetation buffer zone) by guesthouses, all serve to exacerbate an environment already slipping into deep decline.

mfurqaan@mfruqan

Plz dont narrow minded ur thinking of having a resort is enough! Yes, We need jobs, Q healthy facilities, Q education, reliable transpt, proper waste mgmt and so on.Y not invest on food security!? @ali20waheed@YasirLathyf @JamsheedMohame6 @gafoor2656 @Mraee12 @FitteyZ @edzyadam https://twitter.com/MoTmv/status/1170663206261383169 …

Ministry of Tourism@MoTmv

Minister @ali20waheed meets with respective Parliament Members; @gafoor_moosa, @FitteyZ, @YasirLathyf, @JamsheedMohame6 and @Mraee12 to discuss potential islands for resort development in Haa Dhaalu Atoll.

5

3:08 AM - Sep 9, 2019 · Maldives

Twitter Ads info and privacy

See mfurqaan's other Tweets

View fullsize

Environment Impact Assessments are necessitated and therefore are carried out to ensure minimal harm occurs. However, for in instance, most consultants agree requirements like silt curtains and sediments screens are hardly ever used, and without enforcement by EPA and authorities, developers do get away with ‘oceanic’ murder. One of the most important steps that needs to be taken is to ensure that EIA’s are seen as more than a rubber stamp of approval for business owners to skirt around.

In terms of waste management, islands and atolls have moved to ‘take the matter into their own hands’, announcing everything from ‘banning single-use plastics’ to ‘recycling and composting’. Unfortunately the truth of the matter is, plastic is still being used momentarily and discarded, recycling and composting are only conducted in very small proportions. Across the archipelago, waste is still being burned and toxic emissions freely released into the atmosphere, including at the infamous Thilafushi garbage island where even a decade ago, up to 330 tons of rubbish was collected daily.

The technology to incinerate waste using clean energy with zero emissions does exist, and has been utilized by many including Indian inventor Shanavas Sainulabdeen. So does means of turning waste into energy, which is especially well carried out in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Incineration Plant which turns trash to ash in 30 minutes. However, foreign sources have confirmed that the government has, on occasion, deemed investing in such innovations as too costly.

Arguably, the depletion of the Maldives’ natural resources, and the permanent depreciation of its marketable value is a price the country cannot afford to pay.

Continue to Part II...

Why Maldives needs to declare a state of climate emergency - IMMEDIATELY (PT. II)

View fullsize

Could Rooftop Gardens Save Our Cities From Climate Change?

By Shelley Lloyd

09-05-19

Rooftop gardens could save our cities from climate change, but archaic planning laws are holding back a green revolution.

Australian cities are heating up, with an alarming report this year finding temperature increases from climate change and urban growth will make Brisbane "a difficult place" to live by 2050.

Key points:

• Rooftop gardens are considered a storey of a building, so it is not financially viable to have one as a garden instead of sellable space

• Research shows rooftop gardens promote physical activity and psychological wellbeing and have a positive impact on air pollution, noise levels and temperature regulation

• Town planners want the Brisbane City Council to legislate to enforce rooftop gardens in all new apartments

Scientists blame what is called the urban heat island effect, which means cities are hotter than nearby rural areas due to development.

But it is not too late to turn it around, and plants could be the solution.

Green rooftops could help to take the heat out of the city, but Brisbane's property developers and planners said local laws were holding them back.

Cities like Singapore and New York have long embraced sky gardens and while Brisbane is late to the garden party, there are dozens of developments in the pipeline that would use clever ways to provide greenspace, when room on the ground is at a premium.

In September 2018, then-Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk announced the Council would amend the Brisbane City Plan to formalise the Council's support for rooftop gardens and green spaces, but 12 months on, that had not happened.

Currently a rooftop garden is considered a storey of the building, so if a developer has planning permission for a certain number of storeys, it is not financially viable to have one as a garden instead of sellable space.

Developers hamstrung by poor planning laws

Brisbane town planner Mia Hickey said the majority of large-scale inner-city apartment developments in Brisbane wanted to incorporate rooftop spaces, but were hamstrung by the poor planning laws.

"There are definitely some developers who are shying away from adding rooftop gardens for this reason," she said.

"It's not a good look when they [council] said they were going to do this [change planning laws] and it hasn't been done."

PHOTO: Rooftop yoga is held on the Lucent at Newstead. (Supplied: Cavcorp)

Ms. Hickey said research showed rooftop gardens promoted physical activity, psychological wellbeing, and had a positive impact on air pollution, noise levels and temperature regulation.

"It's no longer just OK to put a half-shaded BBQ area up there with a little bit of grass," she said.

View fullsize

PHOTO: The rooftop pool and gardens at the Lucent development at Newstead. (Supplied: Cavcorp)

"We're now starting to see developments that incorporate resort-style amenities that are winning awards.

Newstead rooftop garden a 'sky retreat'

Lucent, a 17-storey residential tower at trendy Newstead in inner-city Brisbane, is one of those, winning local, state and national design awards.

The tower, completed in November 2017, included a 1,600 square metre rooftop area with expansive views over Brisbane.

The luxury development by Cavcorp described its rooftop garden as a "sky retreat" complete with "lifestyle-enhancing amenities".

It claims to have Australia's longest infinity pool, along with a detox sauna and spa, yoga lawn, Zen gardens and even a golf green on the rooftop.

With more families abandoning the suburbs in favour of inner-city living, Ms Hickey said even those on more restricted budgets were demanding rooftop garden space.

View fullsize

PHOTO: Proposed Maison development at inner-city New Farm in Brisbane. (Supplied: Frank Developments)

Consumers looking for the 'up-yard'

"It's just as important as the local school catchment," Ms Hickey said.

"It's no longer about the size of the backyard, but about the size and amenities of the rooftop, or as I like to call it — 'the up-yard'."

There are numerous inner-city apartment proposals with ambitious rooftop gardens on the drawing boards.

Cbus Property is building a 47-storey apartment block at 443 Queen Street in Brisbane's CBD.

Claiming to be Australia's first "subtropical-designed" building, construction is underway on the riverside development.

The building will have a "breathable facade" with gardens on every floor as well as on the rooftop, aiming to reduce energy consumption by up to 60 per cent.

At New Farm in Brisbane, the Maison project by Frank Developments will have cascading gardens on every floor of the proposed five-storey development.

The development, yet to receive Brisbane City Council (BCC) approval, claimed it would be one of the most heavily landscaped buildings in the city, with more than 86 per cent of the site to be planted, when the current council requirement was just 10 per cent.

Further afield, a Victorian property developer has plans for a "sustainable shopping centre" at Burwood in suburban Melbourne.

Frasers Property group is building a 2,000 square-metre urban farm on the shopping centre's rooftop, which it said is a first for Australia.

View fullsize

PHOTO: Artist's impression of inside of planned 'sustainable shopping centre' at Burwood in Melbourne. (Supplied: Frasers Property )

Failure to move quickly hampering rooftop landscaping

The Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) agreed the BCC's failure to move quickly is hampering rooftop landscaping in Queensland.

UDIA Qld CEO Kirsty Chessher-Brown said currently there was "really no incentive for our members to be able to do this — it's actually disincentivised".

"The current situation is that our members can provide communal space on rooftops, but the minute that any roof structure is added to that rooftop space, it's then considered to be an additional storey to the building.

"That then impacts on our members' ability to comply with acceptable rules for building heights.

"If our [UDIA] members do put a structure on the roof, which is incredibly important for our climate, we see our members lose a complete storey, which could obviously be habitable space."

She said these spaces provided "really critical opportunities for landscaping".

"People can provide community or productive gardens and the real lure is being able to reduce some of the heat-island affect, traditionally associated with built-up environments," she said.

Ms Chessher-Brown said there was also a need for further incentives for developers.

"The next step is to replicate other programs in place across the world including Singapore, where there's actually a program to encourage developers to consider greater landscaping and use of planting on rooftop spaces," she said.

View fullsize

PHOTO: An artist's impression of a 47-storey Cbus Property apartment development at 443 Queen Street. (Supplied: Binyan Studios)

Legislation needed for developers to do rooftop gardens

In 2009, Singapore introduced its Landscaping for Urban Spaces and High-Rises (LUSH) Program, which encouraged developers to provide green roofs in all new developments and gave financial incentives for those that went beyond the minimum requirements.

The Property Council of Australia (PCA) is more forgiving of the council for the delay.

Acting Queensland deputy executive director Nathan Percy said the PCA supported the action contained in the BCC Brisbane Future Blueprint to make it easier for new developments to include rooftop gardens.

"We are working with Brisbane City Council on the implementation of this action, but it is important to remember that planning amendments do take time," he said.

"As Brisbane grows, we need to ensure that we continue to deliver spaces that allow people to enjoy our subtropical climate and rooftop gardens are one way that we can achieve this."

In a statement, BCCs planning chairman, Matthew Bourke, acknowledged there was a need for rooftop gardens but admitted it would take until the end of the year to make changes.

"Brisbane is a great place to live, work and relax, and we are increasingly seeing residents and visitors enjoying the city's vistas and subtropical weather from the rooftops of inner-city dwellings," he said.

"Increasing green spaces means a healthier and more sustainable city and Brisbane City Council has proposed an amendment to make it easier to include rooftop gardens for new developments as part of its review of City Plan.

"Investigations, research and drafting of the amendment package is underway and Council plans to be able to send it to the State Government for review soon, before opening up the proposed amendment for public consultation in late 2019."

View fullsize

PHOTO: The view from the rooftop garden of the Valencia Residences at Kangaroo Point. (Supplied: Aria Property Group)

Lead photo: PHOTO: A 'sustainable shopping centre' planned for Melbourne includes a 2,000 sqm urban farm on the rooftop. (Supplied: Frasers Property)

Topics: climate-change, environment, government-and-politics, local-government, gardening, state-parliament, lifestyle-and-leisure, urban-development-and-planning, housing-industry, building-and-construction, industry, business-economics-and-finance, community-and-society, brisbane-4000, qld