Why is the climate changing. (Page 154)

zeffur: It's 100% all natural, so shouldn't it be good for you?

ghostgeek: That all depends on what those pestiferous critters are eating.

ghostgeek: Anyway, it seems that soon what goes down the gullet may not quite what it's made out to be:

But what if there was a way of eating fish without causing environmental damage? Most people have heard of lab-grown meat. But scientists at a handful of start-ups are also serving up slices of fresh seafood that have never been near an ocean.

Proponents of this lab-grown fish – the industry uses the term “cell-cultured” – say growing fish slices in tanks could provide the answer to fishing’s sustainability problem. A single fish could provide food for thousands of people while leaving ocean populations untouched. Plus, cell-cultured fillets would be free from the microplastics and chemical pollution now found in almost every wild-caught fish.

The challenge is similar to growing meat cells for a burger or steak. First scientists need to take a sample from a fish, then “grow’”those cells in a container using a nutrient broth. Most of the time, a biological “scaffold” is used to direct the cells’ growth, helping to create the moist, flaky texture of a real fish fillet.

Fewer than 10 companies in the world are working on this technology. Most are just a few years old, and only a handful of people have taste-tested their products. But already they are promising to have cell-cultured seafood on consumers’ plates within the decade. That is, in part, because developing a soft and flaky fish fillet is more straightforward then growing the tough muscle tissue of a beef steak, explains Lou Cooperhouse, the president and chief executive of US start-up BlueNalu. “Ultimately, it will be a simpler process to replicate the sensory characteristics of seafood versus red meat,” he tells i. “Red meat is, literally and figuratively, very tough.”

[ https://inews.co.uk/news/would-you-eat-a-fish-fillet-that-has-never-touched-an-ocean-cell-cultured-seafood-offers-just-that-950032?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB ]

ghostgeek: BlueNalu is hunting the holy grail of the cell-cultured fish industry: bluefin tuna. One of the most overfished species in the world, they are now so rare that prized specimens can sell for well over a million dollars. Growing bluefin tuna fillets on demand would transform its market, Mr Cooperhouse argues.

“Today you have a supply restricted model for bluefin tuna,” he says. “That’s true of most fish, but really so with bluefin. If we created a demand-driven model, everybody could enjoy bluefin tuna.”

Earlier this year, BlueNalu raised $60m from its investors, and is building its first pilot production facility in San Diego, where it is based. Cooperhouse estimates the firm could be rolling out fillets of mahi-mahi, yellowtail, red snapper and bluefin tuna to customers in the UK within the decade.

Other cell-cultured companies have their sights set on different prizes. Wildtype, another US start-up, is focusing on developing cell-cultured salmon fillets, while Singapore-based Shiok Meats is developing the world’s first cell-cultured shrimps, crabs and lobsters. Avant Meats, based in Hong Kong, is taking a three-pronged approach. To capture the interest of potential Asian customers, it has developed cell-cultured fish maw, the swim bladder of a fish that is considered a delicacy in China. It has also developed a fish fillet for Western markets, and cell-cultured fish collagen for use in skincare products.

[ https://inews.co.uk/news/would-you-eat-a-fish-fillet-that-has-never-touched-an-ocean-cell-cultured-seafood-offers-just-that-950032?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB ]

ghostgeek: A million dollars for one fish? Seems like money's going out of fashion.

kittybobo34: Just a few years ago a tuna was selling for a little over $10,000

ghostgeek: What's wrong with opening a can of sardines?

zeffur: I've got a can of tuna that I'll sell for a dollar. lol

ghostgeek: One of the most researched geoengineering ideas is solar radiation management – the injection of millions of tons of sulphuric acid into the stratosphere that will reflect some of the Sun’s energy away from the Earth. It is a wild idea, but some academics and politicians are deadly serious, despite significant risks. The US National Academies of Sciences, for example, has recommended allocating up to US$200 million over the next five years to explore how geoengineering could be deployed and regulated. Funding and research in this area is sure to significantly increase.

[ https://theconversation.com/climate-scientists-concept-of-net-zero-is-a-dangerous-trap-157368?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB ]

zeffur: A better solution is to force irrationally paranoid people underground to 'protect' themselves from the doom & gloom that they predicted in the 80s that would befall us over 20 years ago--but did not happen. Then the rest of us sane people can continue to live our lives above ground without their irrational & unjustified panic demands bothering everyone else...

kittybobo34: We could call the ones under ground, the Morlocks, and the ones up top the Eloi

zeffur: I think H. G. Wells already wrote that story... lol

kittybobo34: concerning the earlier prediction of global warming, there was a volcano that slowed things down quite a bit,, but the highest 20 years of temps have been in the last 22 years

zeffur: Last winter was the coldest winter in a long time in Houston.
Spring has also been very cool compared to previous years.
Funny how well the high temps correlate with the sun's spot activity
Dec 2019 was the minimum of the last solar cycle & 2025 will be the maximum of the next solar cycle.

Looks like the pandemic made a big dent in the CO2 level (~17% in 1 year)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18922-7

kittybobo34: that is typical of a La Nina year, which this is, means lots of hurricanes

ghostgeek: All I can really say is that cloud cools things down. So do the climate models take this into account?

kittybobo34: Clouds cool things down on the surface. but the co2 is higher, in altitude, trapping the heat input... Example: Venus, very cloudy on your typical 950 degree day.

Sir Loin: Actually clouds maintain warmer tempeeratures at night by preventing Ir radiation leaving the surface, rather like a blanket on the bed. Cooler during the day though by reflecting UV radiation back into space

kittybobo34: Ghost but to answer your question, yes they calculate the albedo effect of reflective clouds, Israel did allot of work on this issue when they first tried to farm the desert.

ghostgeek: Here in the UK there's a lot of cloud and not much sun and it's brrr chilly. Makes me wonder if it's going to be winter all year round.

kittybobo34: Ghost,, an unusual thing about global warming, the jet stream is wandering all over the place, bringing cold air down from the arctic, and warm air up there

ghostgeek: I can certainly attest to that arctic air blowing around my nethers, and I'm getting mighty sick of it.

zeffur: I know people who live in the upper midwest. I was told recently that this past winter & this spring have been very cold compared to past years within the last decade.

ghostgeek: With all the cold air moving south, anyone living at the North Pole must be wearing Bermuda shorts.

kittybobo34: I have heard the US Navy subs have to try and fin thin ice, to come up in the arctic, its all thin now.