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The U.N. meets about geoengineering

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Geoengineering refers to a wide range of mechanical or chemical methods aimed at deliberately changing the global climate system.  It includes a number of unproven concepts, one of which is intentionally polluting the upper atmosphere with thousands of tons of artificial particles such as chemical sprays or mineral dust.  This is referred to as solar radiation management or SRM.  The idea is to dim sunlight, thereby slowing the rise of global temperatures by deflecting solar energy away from the Earth’s surface before it can be trapped as heat by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The United Nations Environmental Program held workshops in May and September to address the issue of such strategies.  This official position of the UN is that strategies such as SRM are not a climate solution given that they do not actually address the underlying causes of climate change.  Recent research has shown that SRM efforts could potentially shift rainfall patterns, intensify heat waves or cold snaps, lead to overall drying, and have other unpredictable consequences.

Many participants expressed concern that the discussion focused too much on engineering aspects and not on the potential risks of such efforts.  The prevailing opinion among scientists is that SRM deployment is too dangerous and ungovernable and therefore should not be pursued.

Current geopolitical trends make the possibility of geoengineering efforts by authoritarian states disturbingly likely.  While there are international guidelines on geoengineering activities, the potential threat of unilateral efforts by rogue nations is growing.

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UN Sessions on Solar Geoengineering Trigger Unease

Photo, posted May 12, 2016, courtesy of Susanne Nilsson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The world is warming and it’s happening faster

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This summer has already seen unprecedented heat in many places.  It started with a record-breaking heat dome in June in the United States.  Alaska had its first-ever heat advisory that month.  Europe has seen triple-digit temperatures in cities like Paris, Madrid, and Rome and even in places like Austria, Sarjevo, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Serbia.  On June 28th, a temperature of 96.8 degrees was measured in Biasca, Switzerland.

According to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world is getting hotter, faster.  Human-caused global warming is now increasing by 0.27 degrees Celsius per decade.  That rate was recorded at 0.2 degrees in the 1970s and has been increasing ever since.

Climate scientists have long predicted that the rate of warming in the atmosphere would speed up, which has been evident from measurements for quite a while.  But now, these trends that have mostly been seen in charts and graphs are playing a growing role in people’s lives.

Each increase in the global mean temperature brings about a relatively larger increase in atmospheric extremes that include powerful downpours and severe droughts and wildfires.  According to climate models, extreme rainfall intensifies by 7% with each degree Celsius of atmospheric warming.  But recent data indicates that such record-shattering events are increasing at double that rate.

The current US administration may not accept the reality of the changing climate, but the planet really doesn’t care what it believes.

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The World Is Warming Up. And It’s Happening Faster.

Photo, posted August 28, 2013, courtesy of Tadas Balčiūnas via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Planting trees to cool the planet

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Planting lots of trees is one of many strategies being pursued to combat climate change. Forests absorb carbon dioxide, provide shade, and help regulate temperatures. They also support biodiversity and improve air and water quality.

According to a new study by researchers from the University of California – Riverside, restoring forests to their pre-industrial extent could reduce global average temperatures by 0.34 degrees Celsius. That’s equivalent to about 25% of the warming the Earth has already experienced.

The study models restoring 4.6 million square miles of forest.  While previous studies have focused on the role trees play in removing carbon, this research adds that trees also alter atmospheric chemistry in ways that boost their cooling impact.

Trees release natural chemicals called BVOCs – biogenic volatile organic compounds – which interact in the atmosphere to form particles that reflect sunlight and promote cloud formation. These effects enhance the cooling impact of forests, especially in climate models that take these chemical reactions into account.

But not all reforestation is created equal. The benefits of reforestation vary by region, with tropical forests offering stronger cooling and fewer drawbacks.  Importantly, the researchers emphasize that meaningful climate benefits don’t require restoring every lost forest. Small, localized efforts can still shift regional climates.

While forest restoration can meaningfully aid climate efforts, the researchers stress that it must complement – not replace – fossil fuel reductions.

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Does planting trees really help cool the planet?

Photo, posted May 20, 2005, courtesy of Ben Britten via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Hidden hydrogen

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The idea of using hydrogen as a fuel or an energy source has been around for a long time.  Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, but most of it is locked up in various chemical compounds, such as water.  Hydrogen is a clean fuel; burning it or using it to generate electricity in a fuel cell produces no greenhouse gas emissions.  But more than 99% of the hydrogen that people current produce is obtained by methods that result in greenhouse gas emissions.

A new study by scientists at the University of Oxford, the University of Durham in the UK, and the University of Toronto looks at geological environments in which naturally occurring hydrogen could be hiding.  According to the study, over the last billion years, the Earth’s continental crust is likely to have produced enough hydrogen to satisfy the energy needs of modern society for 170,000 years.

Much of that hydrogen is likely to have been lost or is inaccessible; most of it is not economically feasible to extract.  But even the relatively small amount of hydrogen left could provide thousands of years of energy for us.  We just have to be able to find it.

The researchers have developed what they call an “exploration recipe” which identifies where natural hydrogen might be located as well as where it could be commercially feasible to extract.  These places with hydrogen have so-called reservoir rocks and geologic formations that prevent the gas from leaking into the atmosphere.

A few such places have already been identified such as one in Albania.  There are various candidates to explore, even including an area in Kansas.  The study’s authors have founded a company whose mission is to find these natural sources of hydrogen.

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Scientists Say Hidden Hydrogen Could Power the World for 170,000 Years

Photo, posted October 4, 2019, courtesy of Tony Sprezzatura via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

It’s only getting warmer

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Climate science is not popular with the current administration.  Phrases like “climate crisis”, “clean energy”, and “climate science” itself are prohibited from websites, reports, regulations, and other communications by government employees and federal funding recipients.  Once again, the United States is turning away from climate mitigation efforts and will have a drastically reduced ability to forecast disasters and head off their worst consequences.

Meanwhile, global warming continues, and the planet can’t withdraw from its consequences.

The hottest year in nearly two centuries was recorded in 2024.  According to a new report by the World Meteorological Organization, there is an 80% chance that at least one year over the next four will surpass 2024 as the warmest year on record. 

The consequences of warming will probably vary widely across the world.  But likely occurrences include rapid thawing of Arctic Sea ice, drier seasons in the Amazon, excess rain in places like Alaska, northern Europe, and the Sahel in north-central Africa.  Hotter temperatures lead to more evaporation of water from plants and soil, leading to droughts and failed crop seasons.  The warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, which increases the chance of flooding from downpours and stronger hurricanes.

Ignoring what is going on with the climate or thinking that it will only impact other people in other places is nothing short of foolhardy.  The planet does not care about politics.  What is happening to the climate will be in just about everyone’s backyard soon enough.

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‘It’s pretty bleak’: A warming planet is poised to get even hotter, forecasters warn

Photo, posted December 1, 2015, courtesy of Adam Matsumoto via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Sun powered carbon capture

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As the world struggles to implement technologies and find the political will to reduce carbon emissions, there are also ongoing efforts to find ways to capture carbon from emitting sources and from the atmosphere itself.  After capturing carbon dioxide, there is then the need to safely store it or make use of it.

Current methods for capturing and then releasing carbon dioxide are expensive and energy intensive.  In fact, some methods even require the use of fossil fuels.  Recently, researchers at Cornell University have developed a method for capturing carbon dioxide that is powered by sunlight.

The Cornell method mimics the mechanisms that plants use to store carbon which involves using sunlight to make a reactive enol molecule that grabs carbon dioxide.  

Existing chemical-based carbon capture techniques make use of amines, which are organic ammonia-derived compounds that react selectively with carbon dioxide.  But amines are not stable in the presence of oxygen and don’t last, which necessitates the energy-intensive production of more and more amines.

The Cornell method uses the same method that the plant enzyme RuBisCo uses in photosynthesis.  It is based on an inexpensive sorbent material that is capable of a high rate of carbon capture.

The researchers tested the system using flue samples from Cornell’s Combined Heat and Power Building, an on-campus power plant that burns natural gas.  The system was successful in isolating carbon dioxide.

Ultimately, they would like to stage the reaction on what looks like a solar panel, but one that would capture carbon instead of generating electricity.

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In a first, system uses sunlight to power carbon capture

Photo, posted August 8, 2015, courtesy of Holly Victoria Norval via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

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

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

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