SW Radiogram - 1330 UTC - Sat - 07252020 - 15770 - Kalamazoo County MI

Before RSID: <<2020-07-25T14:10Z MFSK-32 @ 100000+1500>>
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Welcome to program 162 of Shortwave Radiogram.

I'm Kim Andrew Elliott in Arlington, Virginia USA.

Here is the lineup for today's program, in MFSK modes as note:

 1:42  MFSK32: Program preview (now)
 2:45  Melting Arctic permafrost melt poses climate threat
 6:22  MFSK64: Vertical farming in the UAE desert*
13:02  This week's images*
28:40  MFSK32: Closing announcements

* with image(s)


Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

Twitter: @SWRadiogram



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From the Voice of America:

New Study Suggests Melting Arctic Permafrost Poses Big Climate
Threat

VOA News
21 July 2020

A new study indicates that the accelerated melting of Arctic
permafrost could release as much as 40 billion tons of carbon
into the atmosphere not previously accounted for in global
emissions estimates.

Permafrost is the thick layer of soil in the world's Arctic and
Antarctic regions that, for centuries in some cases, has remained
frozen throughout the year. It is vital to the world's climate
because it stores twice as much carbon as there is in the
atmosphere.

The study, published Monday in the science journal Nature
Geoscience, examines how under usual circumstances, the top layer
of this frozen soil thaws during summer when plants and
microorganisms spring to life. The microbes eat plant roots and
respirate like all living organisms and inevitably emit
greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide. This process is known as
rhizosphere priming.

The researchers say with more and more of the prior frozen soil
thawing, more plant roots are exposed to microorganisms, which in
turn emit more carbon dioxide. The researchers determined the
phenomenon could add as much as 40 billion tons of carbon to the
atmosphere by the year 2100.

Prior to this study, scientists estimated that global emissions
must fall by 7.6% every year over the next 10 years to meet the
1.5°C temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. But the authors of
the study note that their new estimates of emissions from
permafrost melting are currently "unaccounted for in global
emission scenarios and implies that the remaining anthropogenic
carbon budget to keep warming below 1.5 or 2?°C ... may need to
be even more constrained."

While Earth is heating up, warming is significantly worse in the
Arctic. Analysis from NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration suggest that the past decade was the
hottest on record overall. In the Arctic, air temperatures are
rising twice as fast as the global average.

This new study shows that permafrost melt can, in turn, prompt
further melt. More carbon in the atmosphere means worsened
atmospheric warming and more melting.

https://www.voanews.com/science-health/new-study-suggests-melting-arctic-permafrost-poses-big-climate-threat


Shortwave Radiogram changes to MFSK64 ...



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This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net


From Deutsche Welle:

Farming in the desert: Are vertical farms the solution to saving
water?

22 July 2020
Isabelle Gerretsen

     With high temperatures and water scarcity, the Emirates
     might seem an unlikely place for a farm. Yet as coronavirus
     and climate change heighten the desire for food security,
     could vertical farms be the solution?

"When I told people I was going to grow tomatoes in the desert,
they thought I was crazy," Sky Kurtz, founder of Pure Harvest
Smart Farms, told DW.

With just an average 12 days of rain a year, less than 1% arable
land, a desert location and an 80% import rate for food, the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) seems an unfavorable place to set up a
farm.

Kurtz is one of several entrepreneurs using high-tech farming
techniques to boost crop production in the Emirates. Pure Harvest
built the first climate-controlled greenhouse in Abu Dhabi in
2017.

Prompted by arid conditions and a desire for greater food
security, the country is investing millions in technologies —
such as vertical farming — that could make it an unlikely
agricultural pioneer.

Vertical farms can grow a rich variety of different crops by
stacking them in layers under LED lighting in climate-controlled
greenhouses and watering them with mist or drip systems. The
process is tailored to each crop's specific needs, resulting in
high-yield, year-round harvests.

"It takes 30 to 40 days to grow leafy greens out in the field. We
can grow that exact same crop in 10 to 12 days," says Marc
Oshima, co-founder of Aerofarms. The company received funding
from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to build the capital's
largest indoor vertical farm, with 800 different crops, by 2021.

Water scarcity and fossil-fuel reliance

The technology uses minimal land and up to 95% less water than
conventional agriculture.

The hydroponics system places the plants' roots directly into a
water-based and nutrient-rich solution instead of soil. This
"closed loop" system captures and recirculates all the water,
rather than allowing it to drain away — useful for a country like
the UAE suffering from extremely high water stress.

Globally, agriculture accounts for 70% of freshwater withdrawals,
and UAE is extracting groundwater faster than it can be
replenished, according to the International Center for Biosaline
Agriculture (ICBA).

"Water is very expensive over in the UAE, but energy is cheap as
it is subsidized," says Jan Westra, a strategic business
developer at Priva, a company providing technology to vertical
farms.

The artificially controlled environment is energy intensive
because the air conditioning and LED lights need a constant
source of electricity.

This is bringing forth life in the desert could come at a high
environmental cost. Most of that energy comes from
carbon-emitting fossil fuels, even as the Middle Eastern country
feel the effects of climate change.

By 2050 Abu Dhabi's average temperature is predicted to increase
by around 2.5°C  in a business-as-usual scenario. Over the next
70 years patterns of rainfall are also expected to change.

Integrating renewable energy

Although Pure Harvest is building a solar-powered farm in
neighboring Saudi Arabia, its UAE operations get electricity from
the carbon-intensive national grid.

Investing more in renewables "is a goal of ours," Kurtz told DW.
He said the company has not set a clean energy target but is
working on various green power projects, including a plan to
integrate solar power generated in UAE into its operations.

However, Willem van der Schans, a researcher specializing in
short supply chains at Wageningen University in the Netherlands,
says sustainability and clean energy should be "inherent in the
technology and included in plans when starting a vertical farm."

He argues that many vertical farming companies are not
sustainable in terms of energy as they still view clean power as
an optional "add-on."

smahane Elouafi, director general of the government funded ICBA
in Abu Dhabi, acknowledges that vertical farming has some way to
go before achieving "real sustainability," but she believes the
innovations are "promising."

Improved battery storage, increasingly efficient LED lights and
cheaper solar panels will help, she adds.

Local solutions

By 2050, the UAE government wants to generate almost half its
energy from renewable sources.

Fred Ruijgt, a vertical farming specialist at Priva, argues that
it's important to factor transport and refrigeration into the
energy equation. Vertical farming uses more energy to grow crops
than traditional agriculture, but because crops are grown
locally, they do not have to be transported by air, sea or truck
over long distances.

"The energy saving is difficult to calculate exactly, but the
advantages of locally grown crops are huge," he says, adding that
those grown in vertical farms not only use less water and
pesticides, but that they also have a longer shelf life due to
minimal transportation time.

Food security and coronavirus

In 2018, the UAE set out its vision to become a hub for high-tech
local food production.

Companies and investors have flocked to the region, attracted by
the 0% corporate tax rate, low labor costs and cheap energy. With
their help, UAE aims to reduce its reliance on imports and make
its food system more resilient to shocks like climate change and
pandemics.

Oshima from Aerofarms says the coronavirus pandemic has brought
"greater appreciation of how fragile the supply chain is and
raised questions about food safety and security."

When the UAE went into lockdown in April, imported supplies of
perishable goods like vegetables fell and business boomed for
local suppliers.

ICBA's Elouafi said they have helped keep the UAE well-stocked
during the pandemic.

"With the help of local food production and adequate imports,
there has been absolutely no shortage of food in the UAE,"
Elouafi told DW.

Climate change, however, poses an altogether more complex threat
to the country in the long-term. Given climate change's likely
impact on food production, she says vertical farming has shown it
is "an economically viable proposition even with harsh climatic
conditions."

https://www.dw.com/en/united-arab-emirates-farming/a-54252631



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This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net


This week's images ...



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The Italian Navy tall ship Amerigo Vespucci off the coast of
Agrigento. From https://bit.ly/3hzrkBz ...



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Screen capture of video of lightning behind the Statue of
Liberty. From https://bit.ly/3hoxcgA ...



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Lightning at Manassas National Battlefield Park, Virginia, 22
July. From https://wapo.st/2BpgXAF ...



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Lightning over Springfield, Virginia, 20 July. From
https://bit.ly/2ZQCNXk ...



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Scene from a diner in Glendale, Arizona. From
https://bit.ly/3eOk9U8 ...



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A clear night in the New South Wales ski region allows visitors
to view the Milky Way on 10 July in Charlotte Pass, Australia.
From https://bit.ly/3huqHsG ...



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From The Atlantic's "Paws in the Water: Dogs at Play" pictorial,
this dog swims with a ball at the 2018 Dog and Cat trade fair in
Leipzig. From https://bit.ly/32MUZmA ...



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Portrait of a macaque at Newquay Zoo in Cornwall. From
https://bit.ly/3fUBcW0 ...



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Our painting of the week is "The Card Players" by Paul Cézanne.
From https://bit.ly/2WOCL0i ...



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Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...



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Before RSID: <<2020-07-25T14:41Z MFSK-64 @ 15770000+1500>>
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This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK32 ...


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I'm Kim Elliott. Please join us for the next Shortwave
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