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Nature: An important climate ally

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Nature is often seen as a victim of climate change, but it’s also one of the most powerful tools we have to fight it. Natural ecosystems, such as forests, wetlands, grasslands, oceans, and soils, absorb and store massive amounts of carbon dioxide. These ecosystems not only help reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but they also regulate temperatures and provide buffers against extreme weather.

One of the most effective strategies for mitigating climate change is simply protecting and restoring these natural areas. For example, mangrove forests – those coastal wetlands filled with tangled, salt-tolerant trees – sequester carbon at high rates and help protect coastal communities from storm surges and rising seas.  Peatlands – another type of wetland – store more carbon than all the world’s forests combined – despite only covering 3% of Earth’s land surface.  Global restoration efforts are underway, from replanting mangroves in Southeast Asia to rewetting degraded peatlands in Europe.

Creating urban green spaces like parks and community gardens, restoring forests through native tree plantings, and adopting sustainable agricultural practices like cover cropping and agroforestry are all proven to be low-cost, high-impact climate solutions. 

While nature-based solutions are gaining recognition, they remain critically underfunded, according to a recent United Nations report.  Closing this gap is essential to unlocking nature’s  full climate potential.

Investing in nature isn’t just about preserving Earth’s natural beauty.  It’s a practical strategy for building a more resilient and sustainable future.

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Mangrove forests and rising seas

Financing Nature-based Solutions for a better future

Finding peatlands

The Importance Of Urban Green Spaces

Photo, posted October 23, 2011, courtesy of the Everglades National Park / NPS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Saharan dust and solar power

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The world is a big place but even things that are far away can have serious local consequences.  The effects of distant Canadian wildfires on air quality in Florida is a good example.

Europe is increasingly becoming reliant on solar energy to meet its targets for climate change mitigation and energy security.   According to new research by four Hungarian universities, mineral dust carried on the wind from the Sahara Desert is not only reducing electricity generation from solar power across Europe but it is also making it harder to predict what gets generated.

The Sahara releases billions of tons of fine dust into the atmosphere each year.  Tens of millions of tons reach European skies where the tiny particles scatter and absorb sunlight, reduce the amount of light reaching the surface, and even promote cloud formation.   All of these things reduce the output of photovoltaic systems.

In addition, conventional weather forecasting tools don’t consider the effects of Saharan dust events, so that scheduling of solar power for the energy system becomes less reliable.  Incorporating these events into new forecast models will be essential.

Apart from the atmospheric effects of the dust, there are also long-term impacts due to dust contaminating and eroding the physical infrastructure of solar panels thereby further reducing their efficiency and increasing maintenance costs.

Over time, south-to-north transport of Saharan dust is likely to become more pronounced due to a steeper thermal gradient.  Currently, the quantities of atmospheric dust, the dynamics of its transport, and the physical properties of the dust itself are not very well understood.  Understanding these things will be crucial for Europe’s energy future.

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The shadow of the wind: photovoltaic power generation under Europe’s dusty skies

Photo, posted March 11, 2023, courtesy of Mark Wordy via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Vegetation and climate change

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Temperatures have been steadily rising around the world as a result of the increased greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.  This warming trend has led to more frequent and intense heat waves, droughts, and other extreme weather events.  Rising temperatures are also impacting human health, leading to increased risks of heat-related illnesses and a higher number of fatalities during extreme heat events.

One simple but effective way to reduce the health risks from extreme heat is to increase urban vegetation.  According to new research led by scientists from Monash University in Australia, increasing urban vegetation by 30% could save more than one-third of all heat-related deaths.  The study, which was recently published in The Lancet Planetary Health, examined more than 11,000 urban areas and found that increasing greenery could have saved up to 1.16 million lives worldwide between 2000 and 2019.

The impact of increasing urban vegetation on heat-related deaths varies by climate, greenness, socioeconomic, and demographic factors, with the greatest benefits seen in Southern Asia, Eastern Europe, and Eastern Asia. 

Vegetation has a cooling effect on temperature.  Vegetation helps regulate the Earth’s climate by absorbing carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, which helps to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Vegetation also cools the environment through shading, moisture release, and evapotranspiration, which reduces temperatures and mitigates heat-related health risks.

Incorporating more vegetation into urban areas is a powerful solution to mitigate the impacts of climate change and protect human health.

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Increasing urban vegetation could have saved over 1.1m lives in two decades

Photo, posted July 1, 2023, courtesy of Lauri via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Modeling geoengineering

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As the impacts of climate change continue to mount up, there is increasing interest in radical intervention measures designed to keep a lid on rising global temperatures.  Such measures are fraught with potential dangers and unintended consequences but there is no guarantee that one or another of them might still be attempted in the future.  Increasing international interest in geoengineering as a potential strategy for mitigating climate change has created a pressing need to consider its impact before any potentially irreversible actions are taken.

The Natural Environment Research Council in the UK is funding four research projects aimed at understanding the potential consequences of solar radiation modification (SRM) being deployed in the real world.

SRM consists of methods to reflect some of the Sun’s radiation back into space instead of allowing it to reach and warm the earth. 

One approach is stratospheric aerosol intervention in which particles such as sulfates are introduced into the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight thereby producing a dimming effect.   The idea is to mimic the effects of large volcanic eruptions, which naturally send sulfates into the atmosphere.

A second approach is marine cloud brightening, which increases the reflectivity of clouds over the ocean by spraying very small droplets of sea water into the air.  The fine particles of sea salt enhance cloud condensation nuclei, producing more cloud droplets and making clouds more reflective.

The research aims to deliver independent risk analyses to inform policymakers about the potential environmental impacts of SRM.

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Scientists to model the impact of controlling Earth’s temperature by reflecting solar radiation

Photo, posted May 6, 2009, courtesy of Denys Zadorozhnyi via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Finding peatlands

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Peatlands are a special kind of wetland that have enormous potential for helping to mitigate climate change.  They are great at capturing carbon because their constantly soggy soils deprive decomposer organisms of the oxygen they need to break down dead plants.  Living plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and incorporate the carbon into their tissues.  When plants die, decomposers like bacteria digest the plant matter and release the carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

Researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz found that the average per-area carbon densities in peatlands in Colombia are four to ten times higher than those in the Amazon rainforest.  This agrees with other studies around the world.  On a global scale, peatlands cover only 3% of land areas but store more carbon than all the world’s trees.  Peatlands are unsung heroes helping to reduce the impact of fossil fuel emissions.

Peatlands can only store carbon if they remain constantly wet.  When they are drained for agriculture or other development, decomposer organisms get back to work digesting organic matter and releasing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

A major challenge in protecting peatland is finding them.  They are often hard to distinguish from other types of wetlands. 

The Santa Cruz researchers have been identifying and locating peatlands in Colombia, where decades of civil war had made many parts of the country inaccessible for research.  Finding and protecting peatlands there and in many other places around the world is an important task in the battle against climate change.

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Colombia’s peatlands could be a crucial tool to fight climate change. But first we have to find them.

Photo, posted January 2, 2018, courtesy of Roni Ziade / U.S. Forest Service via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Tracking atmospheric mercury

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Atmospheric mercury is a toxic pollutant released into the air from natural sources—such as volcanoes and wildfires—and from human activities like coal burning and gold mining.  Once in the atmosphere, mercury can travel long distances before settling onto land or into water, transforming into toxic forms that threaten ecosystems and human health.

But tracking atmospheric mercury is a costly and challenging endeavor, requiring specialized equipment and trained personnel. Active monitors, which pump air to collect mercury, are expensive and need electricity, while passive samplers, using activated charcoal for remote areas, cost up to $100 each.

Researchers from Cornell University have found a cheap method for tracking toxic atmospheric mercury near gold mining sites throughout the Global South: wild fig trees.  In the study, which was conducted in the Peruvian Amazon and recently published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science, the research team found that the rings in wild fig trees can serve as natural archives of atmospheric mercury, capturing and preserving historical pollution levels over time.

The technique itself is not actually new.  Previous studies have used tree rings to track mercury pollution from coal combustion, particularly in Canada. But the research team wanted to test this method in regions of the Global South, where mercury emissions from gold mining are widespread.

According to the research team, wild fig trees might soon serve as an important biomonitoring tool, helping scientists better understand how mercury disperses across landscapes and through time.

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Tree rings track atmospheric mercury cheaply

Photo, posted November 13, 2012, courtesy of Steve Kessler via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Redefining the perfect beach

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The iconic image of the “perfect” tropical beach is fine white sand, a few coconut palm trees, a gently sloping beach, and unobstructed views of the blue sea.  This image came about to a great extent from fascination with Polynesian scenery at the time of World War II.   And because of this imagery, beach resorts around the world have tried to achieve this look, often by reengineering and altering natural ecosystems to meet this artificial standard of perfection.

But natural tropical and subtropical beaches with their mangrove forests and seagrass meadows are complex ecosystems that support biodiversity, provide protection from storms, and capture carbon in significant amounts from the atmosphere.

With all this relandscaping of beaches, by the end of the 20th century, 35% of the world’s mangrove forests and 29% of its seagrasses were gone.  Mangroves sequester 10 times more carbon than mature tropical forests and sea grass can pull in up to 15 times as much.

In recent years, some resort developers are starting to embrace having beachscapes in their more natural states.  They are planting or preserving native vegetation and allowing sea grass to flourish.  The Six Senses Laamu resort in the Maldives, a major luxury tourist destination, was a trendsetter in this way. 

Coconut palms do little to prevent sand erosion, block wind, or even provide much shade.  In a warming world with increasingly powerful storms, they offer little protection for the world’s beaches.  They are not even native to the Caribbean, where they are now ubiquitous, having been introduced by Europeans.

Many resort developers are now rethinking the description of the perfect beach.

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Your Resort’s ‘Perfect’ Beach Is a Lie

Photo, posted March 2, 2011, courtesy of Breezy Baldwin via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

New highs for carbon dioxide

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Last year was the hottest year on record and the ten hottest years on record have in fact been the last ten years.  Ocean heat reached a record high last year and, along with it, global sea levels.  Those are rising twice as fast as they did in the 1990s.

The World Meteorological Organization reports that the global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide reached a new observed high in 2023, which is the latest year for which global annual figures are available.  The level was 420 ppm, which is the highest level it has been in 800,000 years. 

The increase in carbon dioxide levels was the fourth largest one-year change since modern measurement began in the 1950s.  The rate of growth is typically higher in El Niño years because of increases from fire emissions and reduced terrestrial carbon sinks.

Concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide – which are two other key greenhouse gases – also reached record high observed levels in 2023.  Levels of both of these gases have also continued to increase in 2024.

The annually averaged global mean near-surface temperature in 2024 was 1.55 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 average.  Apart from being the warmest year in the 175 years records have been kept, it is also above the 1.5-degree limit set as the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement.  While a single year above 1.5 degrees of warming does not mean that the efforts to limit global warming have failed, it is a strong warning that the risks to human lives, economies, and the planet are increasing.

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Carbon Dioxide Levels Highest in 800,000 Years

Photo, posted January 30, 2018, courtesy of Johannes Grim via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Trapping carbon with rocks

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Many experts say that combating global warming will require both drastically reducing the use of fossil fuels and permanently removing billions of tons of CO2 already in the atmosphere.  Developing practical, large-scale technologies for carbon removal is a significant challenge.

There is a nearly inexhaustible supply of minerals that are capable of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but they don’t do it quickly enough to make a significant dent in the ever-growing supply in the atmosphere.  In nature, silicate minerals react with water and atmospheric CO2 to form minerals in the process called weathering.  But this chemical reaction can take hundreds or even thousands of years.

Researchers at Stanford University have developed a new process for converting slow-weathering silicates into much more reactive minerals that capture and store carbon quickly.  The new approach resembles a centuries-old technique for making cement.  They combine calcium oxide and another common mineral containing magnesium and silicate ions in a furnace.   The result are new materials that, when exposed to water, quickly trap carbon from the atmosphere.

In their experiments, the carbonation process took weeks to months to occur, thousands of times faster than natural weathering.

The idea would be to spread these materials over large land areas to remove CO2 from the air.  Meaningful use for trapping carbon would require annual production of millions of tons.  But the same kiln designs used to make cement could produce the needed materials using abundant minerals found in many places.  In fact, the required minerals are often common leftover materials – or tailings – from mining.

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Scientists discover low-cost way to trap carbon using common rocks

Photo courtesy of Renhour48 via Wikimedia.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Are today’s refrigerants safe?

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Refrigeration is based on heat transfer mediums that absorb heat from the area being cooled and transfer it to the outside environment.

The earliest refrigerants were dangerous substances like ammonia.  In the 1930s, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) like Freon became the standard refrigerant for use in refrigeration systems and even in aerosol cans.  When these substances were found to be depleting the earth’s ozone layer, the Montreal Protocol dictated their phaseout and by the mid-1990s, CFCs were largely replaced by hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

HFCs don’t deplete the ozone layer, but they were eventually determined to be potent greenhouse gases, thousands of times more planet-warming than carbon dioxide.   As a result, the global phaseout of HFCs began in 2016, and have been increasingly replaced by hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs), which are considered a more environmentally-friendly alternative to all their predecessors.

Trying to not be surprised by additional unpleasant discoveries about refrigerants, researchers are studying the potential environmental impacts of HFOs.  Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia have found that HFOs can break down in the atmosphere and that some small amounts of the resultant products are in fact fluoroforms, which are the HFC with the greatest global warming potential and can stay in the atmosphere for up to 200 years.

That only a small amount of HFC gets into the atmosphere is good, but nevertheless it reveals that the consequences of replacing widely-used chemicals are not a simple matter to determine.

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Are our refrigerants safe? The lingering questions about the chemicals keeping us cool

Photo, posted July 19, 2021, courtesy of Vernon Air Conditioning via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Thawing permafrost in the Arctic

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Permafrost covers about a quarter of the landmass in the Northern Hemisphere.  It stores vast quantities of organic carbon in the form of dead plant matter.  As long as it stays frozen, it is no threat to the climate.  But as permafrost thaws, microorganisms start breaking down that plant matter and large amounts of carbon are released into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide and methane.

Scientists estimate that there could be two and a half times as much carbon trapped in Arctic permafrost as there is in the atmosphere today.

Thawing permafrost poses various risks to the Arctic environment and the livelihoods of its people.  According to a new study led by researchers from the University of Vienna in Austria, Umeå University in Sweden, and the Technical University of Denmark, thawing permafrost threatens the way of life of up to three million people.

To identify these risks, the research team studied four Arctic regions in Norway, Greenland, Canada, and Russia between 2017 and 2023.  The research, which was recently published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, identified five key hazards posed by the thawing permafrost: infrastructure failure, disruption of mobility and supply, decreased water quality, challenges for food security, and exposure to diseases and contaminants.

These are present developments – not future dangers.  Global scientific cooperation, policy interventions, and investment in research are critical to mitigate the impact of thawing permafrost and address the broader consequences it brings.

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A transdisciplinary, comparative analysis reveals key risks from Arctic permafrost thaw

Thawing permafrost threatens up to three million people in Arctic regions

Photo, posted February 9, 2017, courtesy of Benjamin Jones / USGS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Storing carbon in buildings

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According to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis and Stanford University, construction materials used in buildings have the potential to lock away billions of tons of carbon dioxide.  The study, published in Science, shows that storing CO2 in buildings could be a major contributor to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Overall efforts in carbon sequestration take carbon dioxide – either as it’s being produced or once it’s already in the atmosphere – and store it away.  Storing it might involve injecting it into underground caverns or deep in the ocean.  Alternatively, storing it might involve converting it into a stable form using chemical reactions.  These various strategies involve both practical challenges and potential environmental risks.

The new study suggests that many materials that are already produced in large quantities have the potential to store carbon dioxide.  These include concrete, asphalt, plastics, wood, and brick.  More than 30 billion tons of these materials are produced worldwide every year.

Ways to accomplish carbon storage include adding biochar into concrete, using artificial rocks loaded with carbon as concrete and asphalt aggregates, plastic and asphalt binders based on biomass instead of petroleum, and including biomass fiber into bricks. 

The largest potential is using carbonated aggregates to make concrete.  Concrete is by far the world’s most popular building material with more than 20 billion tons being produced each year.

The feedstocks for these ways to store carbon in building materials are mostly low-value waste materials, so the economics of implementing these carbon sequestering strategies are likely to be quite favorable.

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Storing Carbon in Buildings Could Help Address Climate Change

Photo, posted October 19, 2022, courtesy of Alexandre Prevot via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Engineering plants to consume more carbon dioxide

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The most abundant protein on the planet is an enzyme called ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, better known as RuBisCO.  Its critical role in photosynthesis makes life as we know it on earth possible.  What it does is convert carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the organic matter contained in plants.

Getting plants to take up more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is a key strategy for mitigating climate change.  Planting lots of trees is one way to do it.  Another is to get individual plants to capture more carbon dioxide.

Scientists at the University of Illinois have focused on getting plants to produce more RuBisCO which allows them to grow faster, consuming more carbon dioxide in the process.

Some plants are better than others at taking advantage of the earth’s rising carbon dioxide levels.  Among these are food crops like corn, sugarcane, and sorghum.  Such plants’ growth is not primarily limited by how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere but rather by how much RuBisCO is in their leaves.  The Illinois scientists tweaked genes in corn and sorghum to produce plants containing more RuBisCO.  Laboratory experiments on corn demonstrated faster corn growth.  Recent outdoor field experiments on sorghum demonstrated a 16% boost in its growth rate. 

Improving photosynthesis in this way is not only a potential strategy for increasing plants’ ability to combat climate change.  It is also a way to cope with the world’s increasing demand for food by producing crops that can grow larger and more quickly.

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Scientists Engineer Crops to Consume More Carbon Dioxide

Photo, posted April 12, 2016, courtesy of K-State Research and Extension via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Investing in carbon capture

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The interests of billionaires seldom seem to coincide with our own.  In fact, they often seem to be quite the opposite.  But there are a number of billionaires who are trying to help the world combat climate change.  Yes, they want to make money doing it, but doing it is nevertheless in everyone’s interest.

A group headed by Bill Gates that included some of the wealthiest people from around the world met last summer in London to evaluate companies working to mitigate the effects of climate change.  These included companies developing carbon dioxide removal technologies.  Stripping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere is an obvious way to deal with the fact that we continue to dump too much of it into the atmosphere –   obvious, but extremely difficult to do at any scale that makes a difference.

Companies working on carbon capture have raised more than $5 billion since 2018.  There are hundreds of companies working on it and investors include billionaires, venture capitalists, private equity firms, and major corporations.  Companies like Microsoft, Google, and United Airlines have committed billions of dollars to purchase removal credits:  payments to companies for removing carbon dioxide.

There are only a few dozen carbon removal facilities operational today and together they only capture a tiny fraction of the carbon dioxide humans release into the atmosphere.  The hope is that such facilities will scale up in size and number so that they will make a real dent in the problem.  But it will take many years at best, and the planet doesn’t have that much time.  To make a difference, carbon emissions must be reduced as quickly as possible.

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The New Climate Gold Rush: Scrubbing Carbon From the Sky

Photo, posted April 19, 2020, courtesy of Greg Rubenstein via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Planting trees in Europe

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Planting lots of trees is one of many strategies being pursued to combat climate change.  Trees are storehouses of carbon from the atmosphere and planting more of them helps remove carbon dioxide.  But trees do more than that.  Trees are natural air conditioners in cities.

Trees significantly cool urban environments by providing shade and via a process called evapotranspiration by which they release water vapor into the air, which provides cooling.  This helps mitigate the urban heat island effect. Areas under trees in cities can be as much as 25 degrees cooler than in unshaded areas covered in asphalt.

The city of Paris has laid out a plan to help the city prepare for increasing amounts of extreme heat.  The goal is to replace 60,000 parking spaces across the city with trees by the end of this decade.  The plan to rip up parking spaces is part of a greater aim to create more than 700 acres of green space by 2030.  The Paris plan also includes creating more car-free zones and installing reflective roofs on 1,000 public buildings.  Nearly 80% of the buildings in Paris have zinc roofs – an affordable, corrosion-resistant and pretty much inflammable innovation of the 19th century.  However, these roofs can heat up to 194 degrees on a summer day, transferring heat into largely uninsulated top-floor garrets below.

Elsewhere in Europe, Danish lawmakers have agreed on a plan to rewild 10% of the country’s farmland and plant one billion trees.   According to the Danish government, this plan would bring about the biggest change to the Danish landscape in over 100 years.

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To Cope with Extreme Heat, Paris Will Swap Parking Spaces for Trees

Photo, posted April 11, 2014, courtesy of Val H. via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Artificial plants to clean indoor air

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The average American spends about 90% of their time indoors breathing the air in our workplaces, homes, or schools.  The quality of this air affects our overall health and well- being.  Indoor air quality is an issue because many sources can generate toxic materials, including building materials, carpets, and more.  But high levels of carbon dioxide are a health hazard themselves. Indoor CO2 levels can often be 5 to 10 times higher than the already heightened levels in the atmosphere. 

Many of us make use of air purification systems, which can be expensive, cumbersome, and require frequent cleaning and filter replacements.

Researchers at Binghamton University in New York are working to develop artificial plants that consume carbon dioxide, give off oxygen, and, as a bonus, generate a little electricity. These artificial plants make use of the artificial light in the indoor environment to drive photosynthesis.  They achieve a 90% reduction in carbon dioxide levels, which is far more than natural plants can achieve.

The Binghamton researchers had been working on bacteria-powered biobatteries for various applications, but they repurposed the work into a new idea for artificial plants.  The artificial plants have “leaves” containing a biological solar cell and photosynthetic bacteria.  Their first plant had five leaves and demonstrated promising carbon dioxide capture rates and oxygen generation.  It also produced a little electricity.  If its generating capacity can be improved, it might also be useful for charging cell phones or other practical applications.

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Binghamton researchers develop artificial plants that purify indoor air, generate electricity

Photo, posted October 13, 2012, courtesy of F. D. Richards via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

National drought

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Climate change brings with it many kinds of extreme weather.  It isn’t just higher temperatures.  It is changing patterns of weather and weather events that are rare or even unprecedented.

Late October saw drought conditions throughout almost the entire United States.   Only Alaska and Kentucky did not have at least moderate drought conditions.

The previous four months were consistently warmer than normal over a large area of the country.  When that period started, about a quarter of the country was at least somewhat dry, but in late October, 87% of the country was dry.

Droughts in many parts of the U.S. and in places around the world are becoming more frequent, longer in duration, and more severe. 

Residents of New York City were urged to start conserving water.  This October was the driest October since record keeping began in 1869.  The upstate reservoirs that supply New York’s water were below two-thirds full.  They are normally more than three-quarters full in the fall.

Even the Southeast, which received huge amounts of rain from Hurricane Helene, is experiencing drought.  Not much rain had fallen since that storm and warmer temperatures mean more evaporation and drier soils.

Drought is not just a lack of precipitation.  Drought conditions are driven by abnormally high temperatures that remove moisture from the atmosphere and the ground.

Whether widespread drought conditions will persist is unknown.  If a predicted La Niña condition develops in the tropical Pacific, drought conditions in the southern half of the country could get worse, but the Northeast could see lots of rain and snow.

To have nearly the entire country experiencing drought conditions is pretty rare.  But unusual weather is becoming the new normal.

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In a Record, All but Two U.S. States Are in Drought

Photo, posted May 21, 2024, courtesy of Adam Bartlett via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Progress towards electric school buses

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The U.S. has nearly half a million school buses providing daily transportation for about 20 million students.  Most of these buses are powered by diesel engines which not only dump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere but also fill kids’ lungs with harmful fumes.

Thanks to various federal and state incentive programs, this situation is starting to change.  School districts all over the country are beginning to swap out old diesel buses for emissions-free electric-powered school buses.

Electric school buses are finding their way into school districts of all sizes and demographics.  The first district in the country to go fully electric was in Martinsville, Texas, which last year converted its 4-bus fleet.  The first large urban district to go all-electric was the 74-bus fleet in Oakland, California this summer.

The EPA’s $5 billion Clean School Bus program and many state initiatives are providing incentives for the transition.  Five years ago, there were less than 1,000 electric school buses in the U.S.  Now there are about 5,000 and more than 7,000 additional buses are in the pipeline.

Apart from the climate implications, there is urgency to replacing diesel school buses from a health perspective.  Diesel exhaust is classified as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization, and it contains fine particles and nitrogen oxides, both of which are well-documented asthma triggers.

Electric buses are more expensive than diesel buses, but they are much cheaper to operate. School districts need to put in place charging infrastructure.  The transition is not so easy to accomplish, but it is an important step, and more and more school districts are taking it.

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Slowly but Surely, U.S. School Buses Are Starting to Electrify

Photo, posted May 5, 2021, courtesy of California Energy Commission via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Renegade geoengineering

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As the dangers of climate change continue to grow, so has interest in geoengineering – deliberate tinkering with the earth’s climate system.  In particular, stratospheric solar geoengineering – releasing aerosols into the stratosphere to reduce the amount of heat from the sun reaching the Earth – is attracting increasing interest.  Scientists at Harvard, Cornell, Colorado State, Princeton, and the University of Chicago are all researching the topic.

Actually doing it on a scale that matters is fraught with peril from unintended consequences of disrupting the delicate interactions between the Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, land, and sea ice. 

Meanwhile, a tiny start-up company in Silicon Valley has raised more than a million dollars in venture capital and is busy releasing balloons full of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere in the name of combatting global warming.  Furthermore, they are selling so-called “cooling credits” to customers who want to offset their personal carbon emissions.

The aerosol being released is on such a small scale that it can’t possibly have a meaningful effect on temperatures.  There really isn’t scientific analysis guiding or accompanying the work. 

There are no laws prohibiting the dispersal of small amounts of sulfur dioxide in California.  Even if there were, these people could go offshore or elsewhere to do their work.  But this renegade geoengineering highlights a serious issue; namely, that there doesn’t have to be scientific, political, or any other kind of consensus for someone to undertake a potentially catastrophic attempt to alter the climate.  It’s a real worry.

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Silicon Valley Renegades Pollute the Sky to Save the Planet

Photo, posted September 24, 2006, courtesy of Doc Searls via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Ocean geoengineering

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As greenhouse gas emissions continue to be dangerously large and the perils of climate change are increasingly apparent, the world is increasingly exploring ways to deliberately intervene in climate systems.  A number of these ideas involve introducing substances into the atmosphere, but there are also ways to tinker with the oceans.

The oceans naturally absorb about a third of the carbon dioxide that humans pump into the atmosphere, mostly by burning coal, gas, and oil.  People are exploring ways to get the ocean to take up even more of the carbon dioxide.  One approach that is gaining traction is known as alkalinity enhancement.  By adding limestone, magnesium oxide, or other alkaline substances to rivers and oceans, it changes their chemistry and makes them soak up more carbon dioxide.

This approach has been around for a while as a way to mitigate acid rain in rivers and has been very successful.  A start-up company in Canada called CarbonRun is building a machine that grinds up limestone and will release the powder it produces into a local river in Nova Scotia.  The limestone in the river will be naturally converted into a stable molecule that will eventually be washed into the seas, where it should remain for thousands of years.

Expanding this approach to oceans faces many challenges including the costs and complexities of obtaining, processing, and transporting vast amounts of limestone to where it is to be released.  There are also potential environmental issues to grapple with.  But CarbonRun and others are moving forward with testing the approach.

In any event, the biggest barrier to ocean alkalinity enhancement is proving that it works.  That effort is underway.

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They’ve Got a Plan to Fight Global Warming. It Could Alter the Oceans.

Photo, posted May 27, 2007, courtesy of John Loo via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states (more...)