Amazon Tipping Point

A study published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change finds that the Amazon rainforest may have already tipped from a carbon sink to a net source of greenhouse gasses.

Despite uncertainty in their responses to change, we conclude that current warming from non-CO2 agents (especially CH4 and N2O) in the Amazon Basin largely offsets—and most likely exceeds—the climate service provided by atmospheric CO2 uptake.

Update (May 5):  Matthew Rozsa reports on a study published in Nature Climate Change that finds the Brazilian Amazon became a net carbon emitter in the past decade largely due to forest degradation.

[T]he rain forest absorbed 13.9 metric tons of carbon dioxide between 2010 and 2019 — but released 16.6 billion metric tons during that same period. (To put that in context, human fossil fuel combustion is believed to produce around 35 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide [per year].)

Forest degradation happens when a forest's biological diversity and wealth is permanently diminished. [That has] contributed 73% of the "gross biomass loss" of the Amazon, compared to deforestation, which contributed 27% of that loss.

Minimum Wage Defeat

Do these eight Senators actually believe their vote against a $15 minimum wage will win them votes in their next election?  Or are they just happy to condemn Democrats to minority status for the foreseeable future?

Democratic opponents to the minimum wage boost included two close Biden allies from his home state, Chris Coons and Tom Carper of Delaware, along with moderates Jon Tester of Montana, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire. Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, also opposed it.

All of them voted alongside Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has been called the unofficial majority leader based on his outsize influence in an evenly-split Senate.

Update (March 8):  While Amanda Marcotte acknowledges some disappointment with the American Rescue Plan such as the defeat of the minimum wage increase, she notes the $1.9 trillion package is still a major progressive victory which not one Republican voted for. Marcotte is hopeful that that intransigence opens the door for further vital legislation.

[B]oth [Senators] Manchin and Sinema are already softening their pro-fiilbuster stances, indicating that they are open to "reform" that allows them to say they "saved" the filibuster while removing most, if not all, Republican uses of it. What seemed impossible a week ago — that actual bills to save democracy, protect the environment, etc. would get a floor debate in the Senate — now is coming into view. And that's huge!

Update (July 15, 2022):  The Economic Policy Institute finds that the federal minimum wage is at the lowest value since February 1956 when is was $0.75 per hour ($7.19 in June 2022 dollars). The current period without an increase is the longest since the policy was established.