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Methane And Wildfires | Earth Wise

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Methane is a colorless and odorless gas that occurs abundantly in nature and is also a product of certain human activities.  It’s also a potent greenhouse gas, meaning it affects climate change by contributing to increased warming.  In fact, methane gas is known to warm the planet 86 times more effectively than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

According to the U.S. EPA, up to 65% of total methane emissions around the world come from the following human activities: raising livestock, leaks from natural gas systems, and waste from landfills. 

Scientists from the University of California, Riverside have discovered that wildfires are releasing a massive amount of methane gas into the atmosphere.  According to the research team, this source of methane is not currently being tracked by air quality managers in California.  And this omission could have significant implications for climate change mitigation efforts in the state. 

Methane from wildfires is nothing new.  But what is new is just how much of the stuff is being emitted.  According to the findings, which were recently detailed in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, the amount of methane from the top 20 fires in 2020 was more than seven times greater than the average from wildfires in the previous 19 years.  Wildfires were the third largest source of methane emissions in California in 2020. 

In 2016, California passed a law requiring a 40% reduction in air pollutants contributing to global warming by 2030.  But as wildfires continue to get bigger and more intense, achieving those reduction targets will get increasingly difficult.

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Methane from megafires: more spew than we knew

Detecting Methane

Photo, posted November 30, 2015, courtesy of Daria Devyatkina via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Greenhouse Gases Continue To Rise | Earth Wise

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Despite all the focus on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, there continues to be little progress toward actually accomplishing reductions.  A combination of growing populations, increasing industrialization in the developing world, and just plain reluctance on the part of many sectors of society to act, have all contributed to the continuing buildup of climate-altering gases in the atmosphere.

Levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – the three greenhouse gases produced by human activity that are the major contributors to climate change – all continued historically high rates of growth in 2022.

CO2 levels rose by 2.13 parts per million last year, roughly the same rate observed during the past decade.  The current level of 417 ppm is 50% higher than pre-industrial levels.  Increases of more than 2 ppm have occurred for 11 consecutive years.  Prior to 2013, there had never even been 3 years in row with increases of that size.

Methane levels increased by 14 parts per billion, the fourth largest increase over the past 40 years.  Methane levels in the atmosphere are now two-and-a-half times greater than their pre-industrial level. 

The third most significant greenhouse gas – nitrous oxide – also saw a large increase, reaching 24% above pre-industrial levels.

Carbon dioxide emissions are by far the most important contributor to climate change and the continuing widespread burning of fossil fuels is the primary source.  There are widespread intentions to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but those intentions have not yet resulted in sufficient actions.

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Greenhouse gases continued to increase rapidly in 2022

Photo, posted May 16, 2014, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Banning Gas-Powered Cars | Earth Wise

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The European Union has banned the sale of new gas-powered cars starting in 2035.  The vote came after weeks of negotiations related to possible exemptions to the rule.

Germany lobbied for an exemption to be made for cars powered by e-fuels.  These are made by combining hydrogen with carbon dioxide that has been removed from the atmosphere using processes powered by renewable energy.  Because of this source of the carbon dioxide, such fuels are considered to be carbon neutral.  The EU agreed to grant this exemption, so there can be cars that run only on e-fuels after 2035.

About a quarter of carbon emissions in the EU come from transportation.  The new law requires a 55% drop in carbon emissions from new cars by 2030.  Poland voted against the new law, while Bulgaria, Romania, and Italy abstained.  (Italy wanted an exemption for biofuels, but it was not granted).

Here in the US, seven states have adopted rules banning the sale of new gas-powered cars in 2035.  These are California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington. 

California has committed to having 35% of new car sales being zero-emission vehicles by 2026, and the number rising to 68% by 2030.

As these policies proliferate around the world, the auto industry is moving ahead to keep up with them.  Most automakers are planning to have substantial parts of their product line be electric by 2030.  Given the financial and physical inertia involved in shifting to electric vehicle production, regardless of what happens with policies around the world, there is little possibility of turning back from the electric vehicle transition.

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EU Approves 2035 Ban on Sales of Gas-Powered Cars

Photo, posted May 31, 2012, courtesy of Mike Norton via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Storing Carbon Dioxide In The Ocean | Earth Wise

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Reducing the amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere means either shutting down emission sources (primarily curbing the use of fossil fuels) or capturing the CO2 as it is emitted.  Capturing carbon dioxide from smokestacks and other point sources with high concentrations is relatively efficient and can make economic sense.  Removing it from the air, which even at today’s dangerously high levels contains only 400 parts per million, is difficult and energy intensive.  And even when it is removed, it then must be stored somewhere.

Researchers at Lehigh University have developed a novel way to capture carbon dioxide from the air and store it in what is effectively the infinite sink of the ocean.  The approach uses an innovative copper-containing filter that essentially converts CO2 into sodium bicarbonate (better known as baking soda.)  The bicarbonate can be released harmlessly into the ocean.

This technique has produced a 300 percent increase in the amount of carbon dioxide captured compared with existing direct air capture methods.   It does not require any specific level of carbon dioxide to work.  The filter becomes saturated with the gas molecules as air is blown through it.  Once this occurs, seawater is passed through the filter and the CO2 is converted to dissolved bicarbonate.  Dumping it into the ocean has no adverse effect on the ocean.  It doesn’t change the salinity at all, and the stuff is slightly alkaline, which will help reduce ocean acidification.

Reusing the filter requires cleaning it with a sodium hydroxide solution, which can be created from seawater using electricity generated by waves, wind, or sun.

The filter, called DeCarbonHIX, is attracting interest from companies based in countries around the world.

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Path to net-zero carbon capture and storage may lead to ocean

Photo, posted March 10, 2007, courtesy of Gail via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Ocean-based Climate Intervention And Deep-sea Ecosystems | Earth Wise

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Deep-sea ecosystems cover more than 40% of the Earth.  These regions are some of the least well-known and understood areas of our planet but are home to numerous ecosystems.  The deep seas are already directly exposed to the effects of human-induced climate change but could potentially be greatly threatened by efforts to artificially counteract climate change.

A class of geoengineering solutions called ocean-based climate interventions are increasingly being claimed as promising ways to mitigate climate change.  Such interventions would remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it in the deep sea.  There is very little known about the impact of such efforts on ocean biogeochemistry and the biodiversity of ocean ecosystems.

One approach is direct CO2 injection into the deep ocean, which would sequester large amounts of it and reduce the concentration in the atmosphere.  However, too much carbon dioxide in the water is called hypercapnia, which can have serious consequences on marine life.

Other approaches include ocean fertilization – which is enhancing phytoplankton production at the surface, leading to their eventual deposition on the deep-sea floor – and crop waste deposition – which is deep-sea disposal of terrestrial crop waste. 

A multinational study led by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography warns that there needs to be much more research and governance before any such interventions ever take place.  The deep sea faces unprecedented threats from industrial fisheries, pollution, warming, deoxygenation, acidification, and other climate-related problems.  Ocean-based climate intervention represents yet another serious threat to the functioning of these essential ecosystems.

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HKU Marine Scientist contributes to research assessing the potential risks of ocean-based climate intervention technologies on deep-sea ecosystems

Photo, posted January 6, 2010, courtesy of Emrys Roberts via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Hydrogen And The Methane Problem | Earth Wise

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Theoretically, hydrogen could be the fuel of the future.  It is the most common element in the universe and its combustion produces no harmful emissions.  Most industrial hydrogen comes from a process called steam reforming that extracts it from natural gas – basically methane.  Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of the process.   But it is also possible to get hydrogen by breaking down water resulting only in oxygen as a byproduct.   There is a great deal of ongoing development of so-called green hydrogen.

New research from Princeton University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has uncovered a potential problem associated with the use of hydrogen as a clean fuel. 

There is a molecule in the atmosphere called the hydroxyl radical.  It is known as “the detergent of the troposphere”.  It plays a critical role in eliminating greenhouse gases such as methane and ozone from the atmosphere.  It turns out that the hydroxyl radical also reacts with any hydrogen gas in the atmosphere and there is only so much hydroxyl to go around.  If large amounts of hydrogen were to enter the atmosphere, much of the hydroxyl radical would be used up reacting with it and there would be much less available to break down methane.  As a result, there would end up being more methane in the atmosphere, and methane is a powerful greenhouse gas.

The bottom line is that there would need to be proactive efforts to limit the amount of hydrogen getting into the atmosphere whether from producing it, transporting it, or anyplace else in the value chain.  Otherwise, the hydrogen economy would cancel out many of the climate benefits of eliminating fossil fuels.

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Switching to hydrogen fuel could prolong the methane problem

Photo, posted June 12, 2021, courtesy of Clean Air Task Force via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Counting Trees | Earth Wise

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Scientists estimate that there are about 3 trillion trees on the earth.  A huge number but probably half as many as there were before people entered the picture.  And we’re losing about 10 billion trees a year to toilet paper, timber, farmland expansion, and other human activity.  Trees play a crucial role in taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and storing it away.  For this reason, trees have become an integral part of the effort to mitigate climate change.

There are major initiatives underway around the world to plant more trees.  Part of this is driven by the increasing use of carbon credits by companies trying to offset their carbon emissions.   These credits are earned by either planting new trees or paying farmers or other landowners not to cut down existing trees.  But how many trees are actually planted and how many survive over time?

Whether these efforts are really resulting in more trees and more carbon storage is not easy to determine.  Current international inventories of global tree-sequestered carbon are subject to great uncertainty.

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and NASA have developed a method for mapping large numbers of trees and determining their carbon content.  Using artificial intelligence techniques to analyze ultra-high-resolution satellite images, they can count trees, determine their individual species, and measure their carbon content.

A study of images from Africa’s Sahel region found that it is home to nearly 10 billion trees that are currently storing 840 million tons of carbon.

Now that the groundwork for this new methodology is complete, it is ready to be deployed by public agencies, NGOs, and other interested in monitoring the numbers of trees and their carbon content.

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The counting of nine billion trees could help manage climate credits and nature restoration

Photo, posted October 27, 2018, courtesy of Ian Dick via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Keeping The Keeling Curve Going | Earth Wise

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The world’s longest-running record of direct readings of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is the Keeling Curve, measurements taken at the summit of Mauna Loa in Hawaii.  The readings have been going on with almost no interruption since Charles Keeling began taking them in the 1950s.  But the eruption of Mauna Loa last November toppled power lines at the mountaintop observatory and buried a mile of the main road up the mountain in lava.

Scientists have been scrambling to resume measurements and the near-term solution has been to take them, for the first time, on Mauna Kea, the neighboring large volcano about 25 miles away.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration flew in and installed instruments at the Mauna Kea observatory so that only about a week went by without measurements.   It happened so quickly because months earlier, NOAA had already started looking into installing a backup site on Mauna Kea where there is an observatory run by the University of Hawaii.

NOAA used helicopters to install solar panels and batteries on Mauna Loa to restore power in the short term since it will be months before a new road can be built on the still-cooling lava. The plan is to collect parallel measurements for a year to see if Mauna Kea, which hasn’t erupted for thousands of years, might become a long-term backup for Mauna Loa.

The Hawaiian volcanoes are uniquely suited for the measurements because they are surrounded by thousands of miles of empty ocean and are very high up, away from towns, cars, and forests.  Scientists are now monitoring measurements from the two sites to see how they compare.

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Battling Lava and Snowstorms, 2.5 Miles Above the Pacific

Photo, posted November 2, 2015, courtesy of Neal Simpson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Plastic From Sunlight | Earth Wise

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Photosynthesis is the process that plants use to turn water, carbon dioxide, and energy from sunlight into plant biomass.  It provides humans and much of animal life with food.  Photosynthesis is also nature’s way of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  The CO2 is not directly stored in plants but rather is combined into organic compounds.

Researchers across the globe are trying to find effective ways to mimic photosynthesis.  One version of artificial photosynthesis seeks to take carbon dioxide and combine it into organic compounds that can be used as raw materials for various kinds of manufacturing. 

A research team in Japan has found a way to synthesize fumaric acid from carbon dioxide using sunlight to power the process.  Fumaric acid is a chemical typically synthesized from petroleum and is used as a raw material for making biodegradable plastics such as polybutylene succinate. 

Much of artificial photosynthesis research is aimed at using solar energy to convert carbon dioxide directly into a fuel rather than a raw material.  Such solar fuels can be produced by a variety of means including thermochemical (using the sun’s heat to drive chemical reactions), photochemical (using the sun’s light to drive chemical reactions), and electrochemical (using solar-generated electricity to drive chemical reactions.)   These approaches generally involve the use of specialized catalysts to drive the desired chemical reactions. 

One way or another, what techniques for artificial photosynthesis have in common is trying to imitate what plant life on Earth has been doing for millions of years. 

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Artificial photosynthesis uses sunlight to make biodegradable plastic

Photo, posted June 14, 2017, courtesy of Alex Holyake via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Elephants And Global Warming | Earth Wise

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A study by researchers at Saint Louis University has found that elephants play a key role in creating forests that store large amounts of atmospheric carbon and in maintaining the biodiversity of forests in Africa.  Since elephants are endangered, their status represents a significant threat to an ecosystem that is very important to the Earth’s climate.

The African rainforest contains trees with both low carbon density (light wood) and high carbon density (heavy wood).  High carbon density trees grow more slowly and can be crowded out by the faster growing low carbon density trees rising above them.  Elephants affect the relative abundance of these trees by feeding more on the low carbon density trees which are more palatable and nutritious.  This thinning of the forest allows the trees that sequester the most carbon to flourish.

Elephants are also excellent dispersers of the seeds of high carbon density trees.  Essentially, elephants are the gardeners of the forest.  They plant the forest with high carbon density trees and get rid of the weeds – in this case, the low carbon density trees.  According to the study, if elephants were to become extinct, the African rainforest – the second largest on earth – would gradually lose between six and nine percent of its ability to capture atmospheric carbon.

Elephants have been hunted by humans for millennia.   Gaining support for protecting them has mostly been driven by the argument that everybody loves elephants.  Focusing on their role in maintaining forest diversity has not driven much more action.  The hope is that the evidence of how important elephants are for climate mitigation will be taken seriously by policy makers to generate the support needed for improved elephant conservation.

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Can Elephants Save the Planet?

Photo, posted March 15, 2008, courtesy of Michelle Gadd/USFWS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Carbon Capture In Wyoming | Earth Wise

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Wyoming produces about 40% of our country’s coal and many towns in the state were built because of and make their living from it.  With coal’s plummeting share in the nation’s electricity, there is a great deal of anxiety among residents of those towns.

As carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue to climb, there is a growing sense that cutting emissions will not happen quickly enough and it will be necessary to pull the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere.  The current long-term government climate strategy assumes that carbon removal will account for 6 to 8 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas reductions by 2050.

The Inflation Reduction Act passed in August provides $3.5 billion to help build “direct air capture hubs” around the country, with an emphasis on fossil fuel-dependent communities such as many in Wyoming. 

The town of Rock Springs, Wyoming is home to the Jim Bridger Coal Plant. A company called CarbonCapture, Inc., is launching Project Bison, which will build a direct air capture facility outside of town that is set to begin operations next year.  It will initially capture 10,000 metric tons of CO2 per year but plans to expand that to 5 million tons a year by 2030. 

That would be far more than any current carbon capture plant can do. The largest plant in the world, located in Iceland, pulls in only about 4,000 metric tons a year.

There are many problems associated with carbon capture.  It uses up very large amounts of energy, possibly presents environmental problems, and is very expensive.  In short, the technology has a long way to go before becoming viable.  However, this may ultimately be another example where necessity is the mother of invention.

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Carbon Removal Is Coming to Fossil Fuel Country. Can It Bring Jobs and Climate Action?

Photo, posted July 22, 2012, courtesy of Max Phillips via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Fertilizing The Ocean | Earth Wise

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There are a variety of schemes for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  Some require advanced and generally not-very-well developed technology.  Others, such as planting vast numbers of trees, are nature-based but are daunting with respect to the scale to which they need to take place in order to be truly effective.

Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington have been examining the scientific evidence for seeding the oceans with iron-rich engineered fertilizer in order to feed phytoplankton.  Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that are a key part of the ocean ecosystem.

Phytoplankton take up carbon dioxide as they grow.  In nature, nutrients from the land end up in the ocean through rivers and from blowing dust.  These nutrients fertilize the plankton.  The idea is to augment these existing processes to increase the growth of phytoplankton.  As they eventually die, they sink deep into the ocean, taking the excess carbon with them.


The researchers argue that engineered nanoparticles could provide highly controlled nutrition that is specifically tuned for different ocean environments.  Surface coatings could help the particles attach to plankton.  Some could be engineered with light-absorbing properties, allowing plankton to consume and use more carbon dioxide.

Analysis of over 100 published studies showed that numerous non-toxic, abundant, and easy-to-create metal-oxygen materials could safely enhance plankton growth.  According to the researchers, the proposed fertilization would simply speed up a natural process that already sequesters carbon in a form that could remove it from the atmosphere for thousands of years.  They argue that given the current trends in the climate, time is of the essence for taking action.

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Fertilizing the Ocean to Store Carbon Dioxide

Photo, posted August 2, 2007, courtesy of Kevin McCarthy via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Mauna Loa Eruption And Climate Tracking | Earth Wise

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Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano in the world, erupted for the first time in nearly 40 years in late November.  A 124-foot aluminum tower at the top of the volcano has been the site of carbon dioxide measurements for over 60 years but the eruption cut off power to the site, stopping the monitoring.

Carbon dioxide measurements on Mauna Loa began in 1958.  The project was started by geochemist Charles Keeling and eventually taken over by his son Ralph Keeling upon his father’s death in 2005.  It is the longest continuous record of the rising levels of carbon dioxide in the world.

Mauna Loa is an ideal location for carbon dioxide monitoring because it is a remote location away from both carbon dioxide sources like dense population centers and roads, and carbon sinks like areas of heavy vegetation.

There are hundreds of carbon dioxide monitoring stations around the world, including more than 70 operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, so the interruption will not stop global recordkeeping.  But Mauna Loa holds significant symbolism as the first and most frequently sited source of carbon dioxide data.

There have been other interruptions in the measurements.  Federal budget cuts in 1964 paused them for about 3 months.  A 1984 eruption also cut off power to the facility and shut it down for about a month.

When the facility first started operating, the average carbon dioxide concentration was measured at 313 parts per million.   Most recently, levels have peaked at around 421 parts per million, the greatest concentration in at least 4 million years. 

Power will be restored to the Mauna Loa facility and its measurements will resume.

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Mauna Loa Eruption Threatens a Famous Climate Record

Photo, posted November 29, 2022, courtesy of L. Gallant / USGS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Europe Is Warming Faster Than The Rest Of The Planet | Earth Wise

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A new study by researchers at Stockholm University has found that the warming during the summer months in Europe has been much faster than the global average.  The findings, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, are that the climate across the European continent has become drier, particularly in southern Europe, leading to worse heat waves and an increased risk of fires.

Warming over land areas occurs much faster than over oceans.  The global average warming to date is 1.6 degrees Celsius over land and 0.9 degrees over oceans.   This means that the global emissions budget to keep warming below 1.5 degrees has already been used up over land.  The new study in fact shows that the emissions budget to avoid 2 degrees of warming has already been exceeded over large parts of Europe during the summer half-year (April to September).

This accelerated warming in Europe has led to more frequent heat waves.  These, in turn, increase the risk of fires, such as the devastating fires in southern Europe this past summer.

Southern Europe has been experiencing a positive feedback situation in which the ongoing warming has been amplified because of drier soil and decreased evaporation.  Added to that, there has been less cloud coverage over large parts of Europe, probably as a result of less water vapor in the air.

The study also looked at the impact of aerosol particles on temperatures in Europe.  As the amount of relatively short-lived aerosol particles has decreased with the reduction of coal-fired power plants, the temporary cooling effects of those particles partially masking the underlying warming trend have diminished.  In contrast, carbon dioxide emissions stay in the atmosphere for centuries.

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Large parts of Europe are warming twice as fast as the planet on average

Photo, posted April 18, 2020, courtesy of Roman Ranniew via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

It Really Is Greenhouse Gases | Earth Wise

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The scientific consensus that human-generated carbon dioxide is changing the climate began to form in the 1980s. 

For a long time, the changes to the climate were simply denied.  After a while, as those changes became increasingly hard to ignore, the argument shifted to the changes being real but not caused by anything people are doing.  The multi-trillion-dollar fossil fuel industry was strongly motivated to focus attention away from the association between carbon dioxide and climate change.

The greenhouse gas effect has been known since the 19th century.  It isn’t just real; it is essential to life on earth.  Without sufficient levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to trap some of the sun’s heat, the earth would be an ice planet incapable of supporting much in the way of life.  But there can be too much of a good thing.

Naysayers continue to grasp at alternative explanations for the warming planet rather than the inconvenient truth.  Some people try to claim that it is the release of heat from all our energy-generating activities -power plants, heaters and air conditioners, vehicles, and so on – that is warming the planet.

That issue has been studied in detail.  Human activity does generate a lot of heat and, technically speaking, that heat does help warm the planet.  However, the sun dumps 10,000 times more heat on the earth than all of human energy production added together.  Just the normal fluctuations in solar energy are 10 times larger than everything we do put together.

What is increasingly warming the planet is not the continuing energy striking the earth; it is primarily the fact that growing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are trapping more and more of that heat and preventing it from escaping into space.

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Integrating anthropogenic heat flux with global climate models

Photo, posted August 25, 2009, courtesy of Gerald Simmons via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Carbon In The Congo Peatlands | Earth Wise

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The Congo peatlands in central Africa are the world’s largest tropical peatlands complex, occupying an area of 65,000 square miles, about the size of the entire state of Florida. Peatlands represent a huge store of carbon and therefore are important to the stability of the climate.

A study by scientists at the University of Leeds and University College London found that around the time that Stonehenge was built – about 5,000 years ago – there was an extended drying period in central Congo and the peatlands started emitting carbon dioxide rather than storing it.  Over the course of time, the climate in the area got wetter again and over the past 2,000 years, the Congo peatlands have been a place that takes large amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere.

The study utilized peat samples taken from beneath remote swamp forests to build a record of the vegetation and rainfall in the central Congo Basin over the past 17,500 years.

In a paper published in Nature, the researchers warn that if modern-day global warming produces extended droughts in the Congo region, history could repeat itself and the peatlands could once again become carbon emitters.  If that were to happen, over 30 billion tons of carbon could be released into the atmosphere.  That is the equivalent to the total global emissions from fossil fuel burning over a three-year period.

There is some evidence that dry seasons are lengthening in the Congo Basin, but it is unknown if these will continue.  In any case, the study reveals that peatlands are more vulnerable than previously thought and need to be protected.  They are some of the most wildlife and carbon-rich ecosystems on Earth.

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Congo peatlands could release billions of tonnes of carbon

Photo, posted November 5, 2016, courtesy of Roni Ziade / Forest Service via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Windows To Cool Buildings | Earth Wise

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About 15% of global energy consumption is for cooling buildings.  Because of this, there is an ever- growing need for technologies that can more efficiently cool buildings.   Researchers at Notre Dame University have used advanced computing technology and artificial intelligence to design a transparent window coating that is able to lower the temperature inside buildings without using any energy.

The idea is to create a coating that blocks the sun’s ultraviolet and near-infrared light, which are parts of the solar spectrum that otherwise pass through glass and help to heat an enclosed room.  Cooling needs can be reduced further if the coating can radiate heat from the surface of the window so it can pass through the atmosphere into space.  Designing a coating that does both of those things simultaneously while transmitting visible light is difficult.  Coatings should not interfere with the view out the window.

The Notre Dame researchers used advanced computer modeling to create a so-called transparent radiative cooler that meets these goals.  The coating consists of alternating layers of common materials like silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, and aluminum oxide or titanium dioxide on top of a glass base and topped with a film of polydimethylsiloxane.  The computing method was able to optimize this structure far faster and better than conventional design techniques.

The researchers say that in hot, dry cities, the coating could potentially reduce cooling energy consumption by 31% compared with conventional windows.  The same materials could be used in other applications, such as car and truck windows.  In addition, the quantum computing-enabled optimization method used for this work could be used to design other composite materials.

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Clear window coating could cool buildings without using energy

Photo, posted September 6, 2015, courtesy of Robert Otmn via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Trees Are Growing Bigger | Earth Wise

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The alarming rate of carbon dioxide flowing into the atmosphere is having a real and actually positive effect on plant life. Higher concentrations of carbon dioxide make plants more productive because photosynthesis makes use of the sun’s energy to synthesize sugar out of carbon dioxide and water.  Plants make use of the sugar both as a source of energy and as the basic building block for growth.  When carbon dioxide levels go up, plants can take it up faster, supercharging the rate of photosynthesis.

In a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, scientists at Ohio State University found that trees are feasting on decades of carbon dioxide emissions and are growing bigger as a result. 

The researchers tracked wood volume in 10 different tree groups from 1997 to 2017 and found that all of them except aspens and birches grew larger.  Over that time period, carbon dioxide levels climbed from 363 parts per million to 405 parts per million.  According to the study, each 1% increase in lifetime CO2 exposure for trees has led to more than a 1% increase in wood volume.

In the big picture, the news isn’t so positive.  The global warming caused by increasing carbon dioxide levels increasingly threatens the forests of the world.  It has led to worsening droughts, insect infestations, and wildfires.  So overall, increasing levels of carbon dioxide are by no means a good thing for the world’s trees.  However, since trees are growing bigger more quickly, it means that planting them is an increasingly cost-effective method for fighting climate change because the same number of trees can sequester more carbon.

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As Carbon Dioxide Grows More Abundant, Trees Are Growing Bigger, Study Finds

Photo, posted September 12, 2015, courtesy of Nicholas A. Tonelli via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Miracle Tree | Earth Wise

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The world needs to be fed without destroying the environment.   We need to grow more trees to store more carbon on earth and reduce the amount in the atmosphere.  But meanwhile, we decimate rainforests to produce palm oil and grow soybeans.

A startup company in California called Terviva thinks they have a solution.  It’s called pongamia, which is an ordinary looking tropical tree.  It produces beans packed with protein and oil, much like soybeans.  However, it has the potential to produce much more nutrition per acre than soybeans and it is hardy enough to grow on pretty much any kind of land without the use of pesticides, fertilizers, or irrigation.  In short, it is a miracle crop for a hot and hungry planet that is running out of fertile farmland and fresh water.

Pongamia is not a new or rare tree.  It is common in India but grows all over the world.  It is often planted as an ornamental here in the U.S.

The initial idea for making use of the hardy tree was to use its oil as a biofuel.  The seeds of pongamia are known to have a bitter taste and disagreeable odor, which is why the seeds or oil were never used for human or animal feed.  However, Terviva has developed a way to de-bitter pongamia oil.  Once this is done, it becomes a golden-colored substitute for olive oil. It also has enormous potential as a protein for plant-based milks and meats, since it contains all nine essential amino acids.

Terviva has raised more than $100 million to further develop pongamia and is now partnering with Danone, a $25 billion multinational food company, to develop pongamia as a climate-friendly, climate-resilient, non-GMO alternative to soy and palm oil.

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This super-tree could help feed the world and fight climate change

Photo, posted December 15, 2015, courtesy of Lauren Gutierrez via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

California Trees Are Dying | Earth Wise

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California relies on extensive forests to help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere.  But extensive drought and increasingly frequent wildfires have been reducing the state’s tree population for the past three decades.

A comprehensive study by a team of scientists from the University of California Irvine used satellite data to study vegetation changes between 1985 and 2021.  Across the entire state, tree cover area has declined 6.7% over that time period.  The results varied from region to region across the state.

Southern California exhibited the sharpest decline, where 14% of the tree population in local mountain ranges vanished, potentially permanently.  In the Sierra Nevada mountains, tree populations were relatively stable until about 2010.  After that, a severe drought followed by historically large wildfires resulted in a 8.8% die-off of trees.  The northern parts of the state, with higher rainfall and cooler temperatures, fared better, being able to more easily recover from wildfires.

The study goes beyond measuring the tree population of the state and its effects on carbon storage.  The data is also important for understanding how changes in forest cover affects water resources and fire behavior in the state.

The decline of trees in California is affecting the carbon storage abilities of the state.  The satellite survey showed that as the tree populations have dropped, the state’s coverage of shrubs and grasses has risen, possibly indicating that permanent ecosystem shifts are occurring.  The forces contributing to the decline of trees in California are not going away any time soon.  As a result, the threat to California’s ability to mitigate the effects of climate change continues to grow.

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UCI study: California’s trees are dying, and might not be coming back

Photo, posted March 24, 2016, courtesy of David Fulmer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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