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Wild Pigs And The Environment | Earth Wise

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There are millions of wild pigs in the world with the largest numbers in the United States and Australia but significant numbers in South America, Europe, and China.  In the US, there are as many as 9 million feral swine living in 38 states.  A conservative estimate indicates that they cause about $1.5 billion in property and agricultural damage each year in this country.

Researchers in Australia have studied the climate damage wild pigs are causing across five continents.  According to the study, by uprooting carbon trapped in soil, wild pigs are releasing over 5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, which is the equivalent of 1.1 million cars.

When soils are disturbed from humans plowing a field, or from wild animals uprooting, carbon is released into the atmosphere.  According to the researchers, wild pigs are just like tractors plowing through fields, turning over soil to find food.

The study used predictive population models coupled with advanced mapping techniques to pinpoint the damage wild pigs are causing.  According to the models, pigs are currently uprooting an area between 14,000 and 47,000 square miles, which is an enormous amount of land.  The effects are not just on the health of the soil and on carbon emissions.  This much damage also threatens biodiversity and food security.

Wild pigs are basically a human-caused problem, being either feral descendants of domestic swine, or hybrids of domestic swine and wild boars.  Wild pigs are prolific and their numbers have been expanding rapidly  Controlling their populations will require cooperation and collaboration across multiple jurisdictions.

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The climate impact of wild pigs greater than a million cars

Photo, posted July 1, 2017, courtesy of Shiva Shenoy via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Spending Habits And Carbon Emissions | Earth Wise

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According to a new Swedish study recently published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, men spend their money on greenhouse gas-emitting goods and services, such as meat and fuel, at a much higher rate than women. 

The study looked at the carbon emissions created by consumption among categories like food, clothing, furniture, and vacations to see if households could reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by buying different products and services.  The research team reviewed Swedish government data through 2012 and analyzed the spending habits of households, single men, and single women. 

According to the study, single Swedish men spent about 2% more money overall than single Swedish women.  But the stuff that the men bought created 16% more greenhouse gases than the stuff that the women bought.  That’s because men were more likely to spend money on high-emitting categories, like fuel for cars, while women spent more on less-emitting categories like furniture, health care, and clothing. 

For both men and women, vacations were a major source of emissions, accounting for approximately one-third of their total carbon footprint. 

While the carbon impact of men’s and women’s diets were nearly equal, men spent more money on meat while women spent more on dairy.  Both meat and dairy production are major sources of global greenhouse gas emissions.   

The study found single people were responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than married people or people in households. 

According to the research team, people could decrease their carbon emissions nearly 40% by making more environmentally-friendly choices, including switching to plant-based foods and traveling by train as opposed to flying or driving when possible. 

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Men have a bigger carbon footprint than women, climate study finds

Photo, posted June 17, 2012, courtesy of Stephen Ausmus/USDA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

New York And Green Hydrogen | Earth Wise

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In July, outgoing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced plans for the state to explore the potential role of green hydrogen as part of New York’s decarbonization strategy.

Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced using renewable energy, such as wind, solar, and hydro power.  While hydrogen itself is a carbon-free fuel, most of the hydrogen produced today is made with a process called natural gas reforming which has byproducts of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.  As a result, the environmental benefits of using hydrogen are largely lost.  Hydrogen is the most plentiful element in the universe but extracting it for use as a fuel is not easy.

Green hydrogen is obtained by splitting water molecules into their constituent hydrogen and oxygen parts.  In principle, oxygen is the only byproduct of the process.  The main drawback of electrolysis, as this process is called, is that it is energy intensive as well as being expensive.  But if that energy comes from renewable sources, then it is a clean process.

New York’s announcement is that the state will collaborate with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and join two hydrogen-focused organizations to inform state decision-making, as well as make $12.5 million in funding available for long duration energy storage techniques and demonstration projects that may include green hydrogen.

Green hydrogen has the potential to decarbonize many of the more challenging sectors of the economy.  Hydrogen is a storable, transportable fuel that can replace fossil fuels in many applications.  Many experts believe that the so-called hydrogen economy could be the future of the world’s energy systems.  For that to happen, green hydrogen will need to be plentiful, sustainable, and inexpensive.

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New York announces initiatives to explore green hydrogen for decarbonization

Photo, posted October 26, 2019, courtesy of Pierre Blache via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Water Reservoirs | Earth Wise

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A new study by researchers from Washington State University and the University of Quebec at Montreal looked at greenhouse gas emissions from water reservoirs.  It is perhaps surprising to think that water reservoirs are a source of greenhouse gas emissions at all, but that much was already known.  The new study found that those emissions are actually around 29% higher than previously thought.

Overall, the researchers found that the world’s water reservoirs annually produce methane, carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases at an amount equivalent to 1.07 billion tons of carbon dioxide.   That is a small fraction of the 36 billion tons produced by fossil fuels and other industrial sources, but it is by no means a negligible amount.   In fact, it is more greenhouse gases than emitted by the entire country of Germany, which is the world’s sixth largest emitter.

Decomposing plant matter near the bottom of reservoirs fuels the production of methane, which is far more potent than carbon dioxide in warming the atmosphere.  This methane degassing accounts for about 40% of emissions from reservoirs.

The study is particularly important because it may be possible to reduce methane emissions from reservoirs by selectively only withdrawing water from near the reservoirs’ surface, which tends to be relatively methane-poor compared to greater depths.  In a related study, reducing withdrawal depth by 10 feet in a Malaysian reservoir reduced methane degassing emissions by 92%.

Human-generated greenhouse gas emissions come from a surprisingly wide range of sources and it is worthwhile studying as many of them as possible in the hope of finding additional ways to reduce the total.

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Greenhouse gas emissions from water reservoirs higher than previously expected

Photo, posted July 22, 2016, courtesy of Iain Merchant via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Peatlands And Greenhouse Gas Emissions | Earth Wise

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As the world seeks to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that have been warming the climate, most of the focus has been on the primary contributors to the problem, such as the burning of fossil fuels.  But there are many smaller contributors to greenhouse gas emissions that individually play only a minor role but collectively add up to significant amounts.  One of these is the emissions from peatlands.

Peatlands are a type of wetland that occur in almost every country on Earth, covering 3% of the global land surface.  They are terrestrial ecosystems in which waterlogged conditions prevent plant material from fully decomposing.  As a result, the production of organic matter exceeds its decomposition, which results in a net accumulation of peat.  Peatlands are, in fact, the largest natural terrestrial carbon store, storing more over 700 billion tons of carbon, more than all other types of vegetation combined.

Human activity, such as creating drainage in peatlands for agriculture and forest plantation, results in the release of over 1.6 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. This constitutes 3% of all global greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities.

Large numbers of people rely on peatlands for their livelihoods, so it is not reasonable for these emission-generating activities to be greatly curtailed.  But researchers at the University of Leicester in the UK analyzed the potential effects of cutting the current drainage depths in croplands and grasslands on peat in half and showed that this could reduce CO2 emissions by more than 500 million tons a year. This equates to one percent of all greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities.

There are numerous opportunities to reduce emissions a little bit at a time.

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Better peatland management could cut half a billion tonnes of carbon

Photo, posted August 17, 2013, courtesy of Joshua Mayer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Private Jets and CO2 Emissions | Earth Wise

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During the heart of the Covid-19 pandemic, private jet use saw record levels because chartered aircraft were estimated to have 30 times lower risk for covid than flying commercial.  By August 2020, while commercial flights were down 60% year-over-year, private jet traffic was actually up.  From an environmental perspective, however, flying on a private jet is about the worst thing one can do for the environment.

Private jets are 10 times more carbon intensive than airlines on average and 50 times more polluting than trains.  A four-hour private flight emits as much as the average person does in a year.

In Europe, 7 out of the 10 most polluting routes taken by private aircraft lie in the UK-France-Switzerland-Italy axis, with jets departing the UK and France being the biggest source of pollution.  One in 10 flights departing France are private jets, half of which travelled less than 300 miles.

A study by the research group Transport & Environment points out that wealthy private jet owners are ideally suited to aid in the decarbonization of the aviation sector.  Private jet short hops are prime targets for replacement by clean technologies like electric and hydrogen aircraft.  European policy makers could ban the use of fossil-fuel private jets for flights under 600 miles by 2030.  Until such a ban, jet fuel and flight taxes could be imposed on private jets to account for their disproportionate climate impact and support technology development.  And companies and individuals could commit to substantial reductions in private jet use when alternatives exist that do not unreasonably increase travel time.

The super-rich could be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

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Private Jet Use Rising, Sending CO2 Emissions Soaring

Photo, posted September 9, 2020, courtesy of Mackenzie Cole via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Tough Day For Big Oil | Earth Wise

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May 26th was a difficult day for big oil.  Three major setbacks for the industry occurred on the same day.

A Dutch court ruled in a case against Shell, ordering the company to cut emissions by 2030 in accordance with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.  The case was brought by climate activists, ultimately comprising 17,000 co-plaintiffs.  The ruling will probably be appealed but it does represent a major precedent for holding polluters accountable for their actions.

That same day, shareholders of ExxonMobil replaced at least two of the company’s board members with candidates dedicated to decarbonizing the company. Having two board seats filled by climate supporters is not likely to radically transform the company, but it is a powerful rebuke of Exxon’s iconic business model of “drill, baby, drill”.

Finally, Chevron’s shareholder meeting on May 26th saw 61% of shareholders voting for the company to reduce its so-called Scope 3 emissions, meaning the pollution from all the fossil fuels it sells.  In addition, 48% of shareholders voted to demand a report on Chevron’s dark money lobbying.  That initiative did not carry, but nevertheless, nearly half of the company’s shareholders expressed concern about how Chevron is corrupting the political process in order to achieve its ends.

These events are examples of mainstream activism where the pressure on fossil fuel companies is not just coming from the usual environmental activists but rather from shareholders, who after all actually own the companies.  The fossil fuel industry still wields enormous power, but it appears increasingly possible to challenge it and even to win.

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A landmark day in the fight against fossil fuels

Photo, posted August 15, 2014, courtesy of Mike Mozart via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Forests And Climate Change | Earth Wise

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A carbon sink is anything that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases.  Examples of carbon sinks include the ocean, soil, and plants.  In contrast, a carbon source is anything that releases more carbon into the atmosphere than it absorbs.  Volcanic eruptions and burning fossil fuels are two examples.

Forests are among the most important carbon sinks.  Trees remove carbon from the air and store it in their trunks, branches, and leaves, and transfer some of it into the soil.  But in many regions, deforestation, forest degradation, and the impacts of climate change are weakening these carbon sinks. As a result, some climate activists advocate for large-scale tree-planting campaigns as a way to remove heat-trapping CO2 from the atmosphere and help mitigate climate change. 

But according to a new study recently published in the journal Science, planting new trees as a substitute for the direct reduction of greenhouse gas emissions could be a pipe dream.  While planting trees is easy, inexpensive, and can help slow climate warming, the ongoing warming would be simultaneously causing the loss of other trees.  Instead, the research team says it makes more sense to focus on keeping existing forests healthy so they can continue to act as carbon sinks, and to reduce emissions as much as possible and as quickly as possible.        

But keeping forests healthy will require a paradigm shift in forest management.  Instead of trying to maintain forests as they were in the 20th century, the research team says forests need to be managed proactively for the changes that can be anticipated. 

One thing is clear: We cannot plant our way out of the climate crisis.

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Forests and climate change: ‘We can’t plant our way out of the climate crisis’

Photo, posted August 9, 2015, courtesy of Nicholas A. Tonelli via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Blue Carbon Credits | Earth Wise

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Carbon credits have been around since the late 1990s.  The idea is to offset carbon emissions from some carbon emitting activity – anything from a wedding in California to a factory operating in Minnesota – by buying carbon credits earned from a carbon-absorbing activity, such as planting trees in the Amazon.

Blue carbon credits are credits earned by increasing the carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems. Coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrass meadows in fact sequester and store more carbon per unit area than terrestrial forests and are increasingly being recognized for their important role in mitigating climate change. 

Blue carbon credit awards have to date been relatively few and far between and have mostly been granted for mangrove restoration efforts.  But mangrove projects are now ramping up dramatically in scope.  Scientists are working hard to analyze the amount of carbon in other ecosystem types – seagrasses, salt marshes, seaweeds, and seafloor sediments – so that these systems can also enter the carbon credit market.

Over the past 20 years, conservation scientists have spread over 70 million seeds in the bays of Virginia to restore over 9,000 acres of seagrass meadows that were devastated by disease in the 1930s.  The restored meadows are absorbing nearly half a ton of CO2 per acre. 

The rules to allow for blue carbon credits are recent and evolving, which is a big deal. The market may currently be small, but it is growing exponentially.  But as important as carbon credits are, it is still paramount to decarbonize before turning to offsets for existing emissions.

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Why the Market for ‘Blue Carbon’ Credits May Be Poised to Take Off

Photo, posted July 2, 2009, courtesy of Nicolas Raymond via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Progress Towards Carbon-Free Power | Earth Wise

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Climate change has driven countries, states, utilities, and corporations to set goals to eliminate power-sector carbon emissions.  So far, 17 U.S. states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico have adopted laws or executive orders to achieve 100% carbon-free electricity over the next couple of decades.  Forty-six U.S. utilities have pledged to go carbon-free no later than 2050.   Adding these together, these government and industry goals cover about half of the U.S. population and economy.

New research from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has analyzed historical trends to determine how much progress the power sector has already made in reducing emissions.  The study focused on the 2005 Annual Energy Outlook from the U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration.

If the previous growth in emissions had continued from 2005 to 2020, annual CO2 emissions would have risen from 2,400 to 3,000 million metric tons.  But actual 2020 emissions fell to only 1,450 metric tons.  So, by this metric, the U.S. power sector cut emission by 52% below projected levels.

According to the study, total consumer electricity costs were 18% lower than projected values, but meanwhile, the number of jobs in electricity generation was 29% higher. 

Among the driving forces for these trends were wind and solar power dramatically outperforming earlier expectations, delivering 13 times more generation in 2020 than projected. 

The study shows that dramatic changes in emissions are possible over a 15-year span, but much has to happen over the next 15 years to ensure the progress required to meet the ambitious goals set for emissions reductions.

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U.S. Power Sector is Halfway to Zero Carbon Emissions

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

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Post-COVID Emissions Rebound | Earth Wise

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The extensive shutdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in reduced activity across many sectors of the global economy.  As a result, global pollution and greenhouse gas emissions also saw lower levels.  As the COVID crisis lessens, an economic recovery is growing and as that occurs, emissions are on the rise.

The International Energy Agency forecasts that energy-related carbon dioxide emissions are projected to increase by 1.5 billion tons this year, the second-largest increase in history.

The emissions increase in 2021 is expected to be nearly 5%, reversing most of last year’s emissions decline caused by the pandemic. This would be the largest annual rise since the 2010 recovery from the global financial crisis.  In many places across the globe, people are making up for lost time and doing more of all the things that cause carbon emissions.

A key driver of the emissions increase is a rise in coal use.  The forecast is that coal-burning in 2021 would come close to the all-time peak of 2014.  Both natural gas and oil use are also expected to increase this year.  These increases are in spite of a predicted 17% increase in electricity generation from wind power and an 18% increase in solar-power generation. 

Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are now at 417 parts per million and have increased by 3 PPM in the past year.  If human CO2 emissions are not reined in, atmospheric concentrations of planet-warming greenhouse gases could double those of pre-Industrial levels by mid-century, which would have disastrous impacts on the climate.

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Global CO2 Emissions Set to Surge in 2021 in Post-Covid Economic Rebound

Photo, posted October 22, 2020, courtesy of Hospital Clínic Barcelona via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Banning Short Plane Flights | Earth Wise

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Almost everything we do ultimately results in greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere and therefore has an impact on the climate.  But some activities have much more impact than others.  The aviation industry is responsible for about 5% of global warming.

This doesn’t seem like that large a contribution, but only a very small percentage of the world’s population flies frequently and even in richer countries, only around half the population flew in any given year (at least before the pandemic.)

Flying is generally the only practical option for most long-haul trips and unless people give up on seeing the world or conducting global business in person, they are not going to give up taking air trips.

But shorter flights are a different story.  If you are planning to take a reasonably short trip in France, a plane will soon no longer be an option.  The French government says that flights will be banned on any route where the trip could be made on a train in 2.5 hours or less.  The driving force is the reduction of CO2 emissions.  A plane trip emits an average of 77 times more CO2 per passenger than taking a train on the same route.

The Netherlands and Belgium are also considering bans on short-haul flights and Austrian Airlines recently replaced its Vienna-to-Salzburg flights with train service.

Advocates of the flight bans say that not only does taking the train significantly reduce a traveler’s carbon footprint, but it can be cheaper and actually faster than a plane when factoring in the time spent getting to airports, standing in security lines, getting on and off planes, and so on.  Europe’s extensive train system makes this approach broadly practical. Unfortunately, here in the U.S., it is not quite that easy.

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France Will Ban Short Flights That Could Be Replaced By a Train Trip

Photo, posted December 17, 2016, courtesy of Dylan Agbagni via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Deep Learning And Dirty Air | Earth Wise

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Poor air quality is a major global problem.  According to the World Health Organization, exposure to air pollution is linked to the premature deaths of an estimated seven million people every year.  In fact, 9 out of 10 people breathe air that contains more pollutants than what the WHO considers safe.  Air pollution is the fourth largest threat to human health, trailing only high blood pressure, dietary risks, and smoking.

But predicting pollution levels at a given place and time remains challenging.  According to a new study recently published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, scientists are turning to deep learning to improve air quality estimates. 

According to researchers, satellite observations and ground observations both measure air pollution, but both have major limitations.  For example, satellites may collect data at the same time and at the same location each day, but they miss how emissions may vary throughout the day.  Ground-based observations from weather stations do continuously collect data, but they only do so in a limited number of locations.    

As a result, scientists have turned to deep learning – a type of machine learning – to analyze the relationship between satellite and ground-based observations of nitrogen dioxide around Los Angeles.  Nitrogen dioxide is associated with emissions from traffic and power plants.  The researchers were able to rely on the learned relationship to take daily satellite observations and create hourly estimates of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide levels in approximately three mile grids.     

According to the research team, this study could be repeated for other greenhouse gases, and applied to different cities and regions – or even whole continents. 

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Scientists turn to deep learning to improve air quality forecasts

Air Pollution

Photo, posted November 4, 2019, courtesy of Ninara via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Rising Seas And Wastewater Leakage | Earth Wise

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Global mean sea level has risen nearly 9 inches since 1880, with over two inches of that over just the last 25 years.  The rising water level is primarily due to two factors:  additional water in the oceans coming from melting glaciers and ice sheets; and the thermal expansion of seawater as it warms.  Climate models estimate that over the course of the century, global sea levels will rise at least a foot even if efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are quite successful and, in the worst case, levels could rise as much as 8 feet.

Faced with this situation, the greatest concerns are, initially, increasing amounts of coastal flooding and erosion and, as things get worse, inundation of coastal regions making many places uninhabitable and creating millions of climate refugees.

Recently, computer modeling studies have focused on an additional imminent problem:  the flooding of coastal wastewater infrastructure, which includes sewer lines and cesspools.

A new study by the University of Hawaii at Manoa is the first to provide direct evidence that tidally driven groundwater inundation of wastewater infrastructure is already occurring in urban Honolulu.  The study shows that higher ocean water levels are leading to wastewater entering storm drains and the coastal ocean.  The result is degradation of coastal water quality and ecological health.

The researchers used chemical tracers to detect groundwater discharge and wastewater present at multiple low-lying areas during spring tides.  During high tides, storm drains become channels for untreated wastewater to flood streets and sidewalks. 

People tend to think of sea-level rise as a future problem, but there are already serious effects going on today that are only going to get worse.

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Sea-level rise drives wastewater leakage to coastal waters

Photo, posted August 23, 2011, courtesy of Eric Tessmer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Scaling Up Green Hydrogen | Earth Wise

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The global hydrogen market generates about $150 billion dollars a year.  The bulk of the market consists of hydrogen used to produce ammonia, refine oil, and produce methanol.  Advocates for hydrogen foresee a $600 billion a year market based on power and industry uses, mobility and transport uses, chemical feedstocks, and construction.  But the problem with expanding the use of hydrogen is that the vast majority of hydrogen in use today is produced from fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal and producing it creates carbon dioxide emissions.

The great hope of the industry is “green hydrogen”- hydrogen produced either without using fossil fuels at all or by capturing and storing the emissions generated. The most likely approach is electrolysis – using electricity to produce hydrogen from water.

Billions of dollars are being invested by both governments and by large oil companies in a race to scale up electrolysis and make it economically attractive.  According to the Hydrogen Council industry lobby group, at least $300 billion is expected to be invested globally over the next decade aimed at developing the green hydrogen that could one day meet almost a fifth of global energy demand.

Many argue that producing green hydrogen with electrolysis is an extremely inefficient way to utilize renewable energy.  Critics of hydrogen-powered vehicles particularly make this argument.   But industrial applications of hydrogen that currently use large amounts of fossil fuels – such as steel manufacturing – may be places where green hydrogen would make a real dent in global emissions.

The race to clean up hydrogen is definitely on.

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The Race to Scale Up Green Hydrogen to Help Solve Some of the World’s Dirtiest Energy Problems

Photo, posted December 16, 2020, courtesy of Sharon Hahn Darlin via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

How Green Are Electric Cars? | Earth Wise

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Environmental groups, governments, and automakers are all promoting electric vehicles as an important technology to combat climate change.  For example, GM plans to stop selling gas-powered cars by 2035 and Volvo intends to be all-electric by 2030.

There are still those who question how green electric vehicles actually are.  All products and technologies do have their environmental impacts.  In general, today’s electric cars produce significantly fewer planet-warming emissions than gas-powered cars, but there are factors that affect the results for specific vehicles.

The biggest issue is the source of electricity used to charge up the cars.  In places where coal still provides a substantial fraction of electric generation, electric cars don’t fare as well.  But coal’s contributions to the grid are declining rapidly and even cleaner fossil fuels like natural gas are gradually being replaced by green generation from wind and solar power.  If the grid was entirely carbon-free, then there would be no emissions associated with operating the vehicle.

MIT has created an interactive online tool that incorporates a comprehensive set of factors contributing to the emissions associated with cars:  what it takes to manufacture the cars, how much gasoline conventional cars burn, and where the electricity to charge electric vehicles comes from.

The tool provides information like the average amount of carbon dioxide emitted for every mile driven over a car’s lifetime. 

Results will vary with location and various other vehicle factors, but in the great majority of cases, electric cars are much greener than gasoline cars, and as the grid becomes greener, the cars will become greener as well.

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CarbonCounter 2021

How Green Are Electric Vehicles?

Photo, posted January 29, 2020, courtesy of Tony Webster via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

What’s The Best Way To Reduce Emissions? | Earth Wise

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A carbon tax is a fee imposed on the burning of carbon-based fuels, like coal, oil, and gas.  It’s one way to make the users of carbon fuels pay for the climate damage caused by releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 

According to a new study by researchers at Ohio State University, putting a price on producing carbon is the cheapest and most efficient policy change that legislators can make in order to reduce climate change-causing emissions. 

The case study, which was recently published in the journal Current Sustainable/Renewable Energy Reports, looked at the impact that a variety of policy changes would have on reducing carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation in Texas. The researchers found that assigning a price to carbon, based on the cost of climate change, was most effective. 

The study did not look at how policy changes might affect the reliability of the Texas power system, an important consideration after the failure of the state’s power grid following winter storms in February. 

But the study did examine other policies and found that they were either more expensive or not as effective, including mandates that a certain amount of energy in a portfolio come from renewable sources.  Subsidizing renewable energy sources was also found to be less effective. 

According to researchers, market-based solutions have previously proven effective combating environmental issues.  For example, a cap-and-trade approach was used to reduce levels of sulfur dioxide, one of the chemicals that causes acid rain. 

For the sake of the climate, we should probably tax carbon. 

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Want to cut emissions that cause climate change? Tax carbon

What’s a carbon tax?

Photo, posted June 5, 2011, courtesy of John Englart via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

30 Million Solar Homes | Earth Wise

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A national coalition made up of more than 230 organizations has launched an initiative called the 30 Million Solar Homes campaign.  The goal is to add enough rooftop and community solar energy to power 30 million homes across the U.S. over the next five years.  That would be the equivalent of one in four American households.

The major focus of the 30 Million Solar Homes initiative is to rapidly and massively scale programs that help low-income families benefit from solar power.  The coalition lists 15 federal policy initiatives including making solar tax incentives more equitable, providing more reliable low-income energy assistance through solar energy, supplementing low-income weatherization assistance with solar energy, and specifically funding solar projects in marginalized communities.

The federal government spends billions of dollars every year to help families to pay their energy costs, but these efforts only serve less than a fifth of the eligible population.  Funding rooftop and community solar access for these households would provide long-term financial relief and reduce the need for annual energy bill assistance.

The more than 230 organizations in the coalition represent organizations focused on energy equity, climate, business, environment, faith, and public health.  The coalition estimates that executing the plan would create three million good-paying jobs, lower energy bills by at least $20 billion a year, and reduce total annual greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5%.

Over the coming months, the campaign will seek to educate lawmakers and the Biden-Harris Administration about the benefits of distributed solar energy.  The vision outlined by the coalition is an ambitious one to say the least.

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30 Million Solar Homes

Supporters of 30MSH

Photo, posted May 20, 2009, courtesy of Solar Trade Association via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Climate Change And The Coronavirus | Earth Wise

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It’s no secret that our planet is heating up.  Scientists have concluded that the changing climate is primarily the result of increased human-caused (or anthropogenic) greenhouse gas emissions.  Some of the effects of global climate change include thawing permafrost, warming oceans, intensifying storms and wildfires, and rising seas.     

In southern China, the surge in greenhouse gas emissions over the past century has driven the growth of forest habitat favored by bats, leading to the creation of a hotspot for bat-borne coronaviruses in that region. 

According to a new study by researchers from the University of Cambridge in the UK, climate change could have played a direct role in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study, which was recently published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, revealed large-scale changes in the type of vegetation in the southern Chinese Yunnan province over the last century, as well as in the adjacent regions of Myanmar and Laos.  Increases in temperature, sunlight, atmospheric carbon dioxide and other climatic changes have transformed natural habitats from tropical shrubland to tropical savannah and deciduous woodland.  These changes have created ideal habitats for many bat species that predominantly live in forests.

According to the study, an additional 40 bat species moved into Yunnan province over the past century.  This is the region where genetic data suggests SARS-CoV-2 may have arisen.  Each bat species harbors an average of 2.7 coronaviruses. 

The researchers urge policymakers to acknowledge the role that climate change plays in outbreaks of viral diseases and to work together to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. 

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Climate change may have driven the emergence of SARS-CoV-2

Photo, posted July 21, 2013, courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Ann Froschauer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Ozone Recovery Back On Track | Earth Wise

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In 2019, we reported that new emissions of chlorofluorocarbons from eastern Asia were threatening the recovery of the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere.  An unexpected spike in CFC emissions was threatening to undo the progress made under the Montreal Protocol, the international treaty under which every country in the world agreed to phase out the production and use of the ozone-eating chemicals by 2010.

In 2018, a team of scientists reported the spike in emissions of the particular formulation CFC-11 that began in 2013.  By 2019, a second team reported that a significant portion of the emissions could be traced to the Shandong and Hebie provinces in China where there were small factories using the chemical to manufacture foam insulation used in refrigerators and buildings.

Recently, in two papers published in Nature, the same two research teams reported that the global annual emissions of CFC-11 into the atmosphere have declined sharply.   They traced a substantial fraction of the global emission reductions to the very same regions of eastern China where they had previously reported the original spike. 

The results are very encouraging.   If CFC-11 emissions had continued to rise, or even just level off, there would have been real problems with ozone depletion.  Two independent global monitoring networks – one operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and one led by MIT called the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment – are doing a good job of detecting threats to the world’s protective ozone layer.  However, the Chinese sources only accounted for about half of the CFC-11 entering the atmosphere.  We still don’t know where the rest of it is coming from.

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Reductions in CFC-11 emissions put ozone recovery back on track

Return of an Old Threat

Photo, posted July 29, 2015, courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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