🚨NEW STUDY🚨
"Six models are used in a recent study to analyze the climatic, environmental & socio-economic consequences of #overshooting a C budget consistent with the 1.5°C temp target along the cause-effect chain from emissions & #CarbonRemovals to climate risks & impact."
🧵
"Global climatic indicators such as CO2-concentration and mean temperature closely follow the #CarbonBudget#overshoot with mid-century peaks of 50 ppmv and 0.35°C, respectively."
2/10
Findings of this study highlight that "investigating #overshoot scenarios requires temporally and spatially differentiated analysis of climate, environmental and socioeconomic systems."
3/10
Researchers find "persistent and spatially heterogeneous differences in the distribution of #carbon across various pools, ocean heat content, sea-level rise as well as #economic damages."
4/10
"Moreover, it was find in the study that key impacts, including degradation of marine ecosystem, heat wave exposure & economic damages, are more severe in equatorial areas than in higher latitudes, although absolute #temperature changes are stronger in higher latitudes."
5/10
"The detrimental effects of a 1.5 °C warming and the additional effects due to #overshoots are strongest in non-OECD countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)."
6/10
"Constraining the overshoot inflates CO2 prices, thus shifting #CarbonRemoval towards early #afforestation while reducing the total cumulative deployment only slightly, while mitigation costs increase sharply in #DevelopingCountries."
7/10
"Thus, scenarios with C budget overshoots can reverse global mean temp increase but imply more persistent & geographically heterogeneous impacts. Overall, the decision about #overshooting implies more severe trade-offs btw #mitigation & impacts in #DevelopingCountries."
8/10
Read the study led by @NB_pik entitled: "Exploring risks and benefits of overshooting a 1.5 °C carbon budget over space and time" here ⬇️ iopscience.iop.org/article/10.108…
New study revealed that Kenyan fig trees can literally turn parts of themselves to stone, using microbes to convert internal crystals into limestone-like deposits that lock away CO2, sweeten surrounding soil & still yield fruit. #CarbonRemoval
DETAILS🧵1/8
2/ Some Kenyan fig trees, like Ficus wakefieldii, store CO₂ not just as organic matter (wood/leaves) but also as calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) - the same mineral as chalk or limestone.
This process is called the oxalate-carbonate pathway (OCP).
3/ PROCESS:
First, the tree forms calcium oxalate crystals inside its wood.
Then, special microbes (oxalotrophic microorganisms) or fungi convert these crystals into CaCO₃.
This locks up carbon in mineral form that can persist in soil far longer than organic carbon.
🚨What if we bet too much on future carbon removal tech and it doesn’t deliver?
New study shows that over-relying on #CDR like DACCS & BECCS could let fossil fuel emissions continue longer, delay action, and raise costs later.
Key findings🧵1/9
2/ Many net-zero plans assume large-scale CDR. But techs like direct air capture (DACCS) & bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) are tiny today and scaling them is risky due to land, energy & cost barriers.
3/ Researchers ran 6 scenarios using GCAM:
-Stage 1: Plan for high or low CDR now
-Stage 2: Learn mid-century whether high CDR is actually feasible or not, and then adjust policy or not
They tracked emissions, energy shifts, costs & who bears the burden.
This episode dives into a radical proposal: using a buried nuclear explosion on the seafloor to break up basalt & speed up carbon removal via Enhanced Rock Weathering. The goal? Sequester 30 years of global CO2.
2/12
This episode unpacks a preprint by Hosea Olayiwola Patrick drawing lessons from COVID-19 for solar geoengineering.