| From The Newspaper (13) Environment (3) |
December 15, 2022
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| In the latter part of the TV program, they discussed countermeasures against abnormal/extreme climates. In one project in Denmark, they are developing a new grain that is strong against dry climates and can be eaten instead of wheat and other crops. This grain is an 'Intermediate Wheatgrass'. They are perennial plants, while wheat and other crops are annual plants. Perennial plants are basically stronger than annual plants in dry climates, but their harvest is less. So, scientists in Denmark are trying to improve one of the 'Intermediate Wheatgrasses' named 'quinoa'. 'Quinoa' is from the high mountains in South America. They are strong against dry and ultraviolet rays, but their yields are one-fifth of wheat, so they are crossbreeding quinoa to increase their yields. This 'Quinoa' story reminded him of a movie named 'Interstellar'. It was an American Sci-Fi movie. Because of extreme global warming, people in the movie had hard lives. They had to wipe their tables every morning because sandstorms happened often because of droughts everywhere. Scientists were experimenting with plants which were strong for dry climates. Farmers had shifted their grains from wheat to corn and  okra. (He didn't know whether okra is strong against dry climate, though.) Maybe the CO2 level had already exceeded the 'tipping point'. In the movie, some scientists were making plans to escape from the earth. An article from the October 28th newspaper gave him a feeling that the movie world was not just in Sci-Fi movies. The title read, "By the end of this century, the temperature could rise by 2.8℃: UN report ~fundamental reforms of reducing CO2 plans are needed." The article read that if each country does not reinforce their countermeasures against global warming, the temperature will go up by 2.8% by the end of this century. It was announced by UNEP, United Nations Environment Plan, on the 27th. The UNEP Secretariat explained about their forecast that even if each country accomplishes their goals which were decided under the 'Paris Agreement' in the COP21 in 2015, the temperature would rise by 2.5℃. There was a graph next to the article: The Paris Agreement's target : 1.5℃ rise (from before the Industrial Revolution, 150 years ago.) In case that the Paris Agreement's target is accomplished : 2.5℃ rise In case that there is no enforcement of the agreement: 2.8℃ rise He thought that the UNEP Secretariat was irresponsible because the UN had a leadership role to make the CO2 reducing target in the Paris Agreement to keep the temperature at the end of the century under the targeted 1.5℃ temperature rise. He checked on the internet. At that time this country promised to reduce its CO2 emission by 26% from its level in 2013 by 2030. They upgraded it from 26% to 46% afterwards. He didn't know about the details, but maybe each country must have upgraded their targets. But, from the Secretariat's remarks, those targets became lax. Anyways, if the temperature becomes 2.5℃ or 2.8℃, there will be more extreme weather patterns, of course. He checked on the internet. The present average temperature is 1.15℃ higher than 150 years ago. Another article from November 12th read, "CO2 emissions this year are going to be the worst." It added that the amount of CO2 emissions this year will be 37.5 billion tons, which is 1% more than the previous year, an international research team said. There was a graph, which showed a line of each year's emission of CO2 which was going up constantly, except for the previous two years because of Covid-19. He felt that the 'Interstellar' world might be approaching. |
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No. 500
*countermeasure :対処法
*perennial :多年の
*yield :産出する、産出量
*interstellar :星間の
*drought :旱魃
*reinforce :強化する
*enforcement :実施
*lax :ゆるい