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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

Saving The Sumatran Rhino | Earth Wise

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The Sumatran rhinoceros is the smallest and most ancient rhino species and is the only surviving species with hair.  It is critically endangered.  Because of poaching and habitat destruction, there are fewer than 50 of them left in the wild and those are scattered in the rainforests of Sumatra and the Indonesian part of Borneo.  Mating encounters between surviving males and females are increasingly rare.

The last male Sumatran rhino in Malaysia died in 2019 but cell samples from that individual are the basis of an ambitious effort in bioengineering.

Researchers from the Max Delbruck Center in Germany are taking skin cells from the deceased rhino and turning them into stem cells.  The hope is to use these stem cells to derive egg and sperm cells to be the basis of assisted reproduction.  Fertilization would take place in a petri dish.  The resultant embryos would then be carried to term by surrogate rhino mothers.

The researchers have reported success generating induced pluripotent stem cells or IPS cells from the rhino skin samples.  IPS cells are able to divide indefinitely and can transform into any cell type in the body.

The next step is to try to cultivate primordial germ cells – the precursors of eggs and sperm.

This work is going on because it is increasingly difficult to preserve the Sumatran rhino population by gathering together remaining individuals in wildlife Reserves.  Females that have not been pregnant for a long time often become infertile because of cyst growth on their reproductive organs, and some are just too old to bear young.

It may take extraordinary efforts like these to save these animals from extinction.

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A second chance for the Sumatran rhino

Photo, posted April 30, 2008, courtesy of Willem V. Strien via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Green New Year | Earth Wise

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Every year, millions of people around the world make resolutions in hopes of sparking positive changes in the new year.  Popular resolutions include improving health and fitness, traveling more, spending less, and so on.  With the New Year just around the corner, here are seven resolutions we all could make that would collectively have a major impact on the planet: 

1) Eat less meat.  Resource-intensive animal-based foods like meat, dairy, and eggs are one of the chief contributors to climate change. 

2) Get a home energy audit.  It’s a great way to understand your home’s energy footprint and discover ways to improve the energy efficiency of your home. 

3) Buy local whenever possible.  Shopping locally supports the local economy and dramatically cuts down on the carbon emissions associated with shipping.

4) Carry reusable shopping bags on errands. While disposable shopping bags are convenient, they are difficult to recycle and are often thrown away. 

5) Air dry your laundry whenever possible.  Drying clothes outside or using an indoor drying rack can save money and energy.  Americans spend about $9 billion a year on electricity to dry clothing. 

6) Purchase used or pre-owned items.  The market for second-hand items is booming, making it possible to purchase pretty much anything you want at thrift stores or online. 

7) Bring a reusable water bottle everywhere.  According to the EPA, Americans throw away enough plastic bottles each year to circle the earth five times.  Carrying your own bottle helps reduce this waste and will save you money.

As we ring in the new year this weekend, let’s raise our glasses to a cleaner and greener 2023. 

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10 Sustainable New Year’s Resolutions!

New Year’s Resolutions

Photo, posted December 31, 2014, courtesy of Doug Anderson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Examining The Decline Of Honey Bees | Earth Wise

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For many years, scientists have been sounding the alarm on the global struggle of pollinators.  Many of the invertebrate pollinator species, such as bees and butterflies, are facing extinction. And since 75% of the world’s food crops depend on pollination to some extent, the decline of pollinators poses a major threat to global food security.

Honey bees are among the struggling pollinators.  Over the past 14 years, bee colonies have been disappearing at an alarming rate in what is known as the “colony collapse disorder.” 

In an effort to understand why, scientists have often focused their research on environmental stressors, such as parasites, pesticides, and disease.  But according to new research by entomologists from the University of Maryland, honey bee life spans are simply 50% shorter today than they were 50 years ago.  In the study, which was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers found that honey bees kept in a controlled, laboratory environment lived half as long as honey bees did in the 1970s.  This is the first study to show that genetics – as opposed to environmental stressors – may be influencing the broader trends seen in the beekeeping industry.

When the researchers modeled the effect of their findings on a beekeeping operation, they found that the resulting loss rates were about 33%.  This is similar to the average overwinter and annual loss rates reported by beekeepers during the past 14 years.

The next step is for researchers to compare trends in honey bee life spans across the U.S. and in other countries to see if there are differences in bee longevity. 

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Honey Bee Lifespans are 50% Shorter Today Than They Were 50 Years Ago

Helping Agriculture’s Helpful Honey Bees

Photo, posted June 23, 2007, courtesy of Susan E. Ellis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Tick-Borne Pathogens In Canada | Earth Wise

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Measuring only three to five millimeters in size, tiny ticks are a big problem.  They are widely distributed in many parts of the world, especially in warm and humid climates.  Ticks are arachnids – not insects – meaning they’re more closely related to spiders than to flies or mosquitos.  They are external parasites that feast on the blood of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals – including humans.

In the United States, ticks are responsible for spreading potentially life-threatening infectious diseases.  According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ticks infect more than 300,000 people with Lyme disease in the U.S. every year, and the numbers continue to rise.  Other common tick-borne diseases include anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and powassan encephalitis.

Ticks are becoming a problem in Canada as well.  According to a new study by researchers from McGill University and the University of Ottawa, tick-borne pathogens are on the rise in Central Canada – a region where ticks were never previously detected. 

In the study, the researchers collected ticks across Ontario and Quebec.  They found that five emerging pathogens were present across their study sites, including the pathogens that cause Lyme disease and babesiosis.  The researchers also found that pathogens can transmit in different ways.  Typically, pathogens are transmitted to a tick after feeding from the blood of an infected host, like a small mammal.  But the research team found evidence of pathogens that could be directly transmitted from adult female ticks to larval ticks.

According to the researchers, more comprehensive testing and tracking is needed to detect the spread and risks of tick-borne pathogens to humans and wildlife in Canada.

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Tick-borne pathogens increasingly widespread in Central Canada

Photo, posted May 4, 2009, courtesy of Jerry Kirkhart 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

Rainforest Promises | Earth Wise

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The recent UN climate summit in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt brought with it lots of pledges for action.   Among them was a promise from the three countries that are home to more than half of the world’s tropical rainforests to try to do something to protect them.

The ministers of Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed an agreement pledging cooperation on sustainable management and conservation, restoration of critical ecosystems, and creation of economies that would ensure the health of both their people and their forests.

The plan has no financial backing of its own.  The countries are pledging to work together to establish a funding mechanism that could help to preserve the tropical forests that both help regulate the Earth’s climate and sustain a wide range of animals, plants, birds, and insects.

That such an agreement has come about at all is a result of the election of Luiz Lula da Silva as Brazilian president, replacing Jair Bolsonaro, who was famously an opponent of any and all environmental conservation or protections.  President Lula addressed the attendees of the climate summit promising that “Brazil is back.”   He described his country as having been in a cocoon for the past four years under his predecessor.  He declared that going forward, Brazil will be a force to combat climate change.  Given the importance of the Amazon rainforest, that is critical for the success of the world’s efforts.

Like all other issues on the table at the climate summit, the real challenge is not to come up with meaningful pledges on climate action, it is to be able to follow through on those pledges.  If past summits are any indication, that is not an easy task.

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Brazil, Indonesia and Congo Sign Rainforest Protection Pact

Photo, posted September 15, 2013, courtesy of Moises Silva Lima via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Climate A Winner In The Elections | Earth Wise

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The dominant issues in midterm elections in November were the economy and abortion rights, but at the same time there were also ballot initiatives in various cities and states across the country related to climate.  What some describe as the ‘silent surprise’ of the election was that these initiatives generally passed and, in some cases, by large majorities.

The most significant of these ballot measures was in New York, where two-thirds  of voters passed the largest environmental bond measure in state history.  The measure funds up to $4.2 billion for environmental improvement projects including increasing flood resiliency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, electrifying school buses, and creating more green and open spaces.

The Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act provides up to $1.5 billion for projects aimed at climate change mitigation.  Another $1.1 billion is targeted for flood risk reduction and waterway restoration.  $650 million goes for water quality and infrastructure improvement. 

Rhode Island voters passed a green bonds act that will allow the state to invest in climate resiliency at the municipal level, as well as local recreation, open space protection, brownfields remediation, and forest and habitat restoration. 

Other climate-related ballot measures passed in Boulder, Colorado and in El Paso, Texas.  There were however a few climate measures that lost.  Proposition 30 in California that would have taxed very high-income residents to encourage sale of electric vehicles failed.  So did Arizona Proposition 310, which would have increased sales taxes by 0.1% to fund fire districts.

But overall, it was a good election for the climate.

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Voters pass historic climate initiatives in ‘silent surprise’ of US midterms

Photo, posted September 24, 2021, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Are Companies Really Reducing Emissions? | Earth Wise

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Many companies around the world are declaring tremendous progress in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.  Sometimes these claims are the result of actions that really do  reduce emissions but other times they are the result of something called “market-based accounting”. Businesses buy credits from clean energy providers that allows them to say they are running on green power when they actually are not.

The market analysis firm Bloomberg Green analyzed almost 6,000 climate reports filed by corporations last year and found that over 1,300 of them employed market-based accounting to erase over 120 million tons of emissions from their records.

Some clean energy contracts do have major climate benefits.  For example, companies like Amazon, Nestle, and Target have signed long-term power purchase agreements that ultimately help renewable developers finance new energy projects.

On the other hand, renewable energy credits are often short-term transactions with existing facilities and do little to stimulate investment or otherwise lead to greater use of green power.  They simply shift around ownership of existing renewable energy without doing anything new for the climate.

Some companies have made meaningful cuts to their pollution by putting solar panels on their roofs, upgrading their lighting and air conditioning equipment, and so on.  But many are reluctant to spend their capital in this way, even if it eventually saves money through lower electric bills.

Customers and shareholders want to see corporations do their part in reducing emissions.  But too many are making grandiose claims enabled by market-based accounting while doing far too little to help the environment.  Dubious claims of climate progress are not harmless; it is essential for the world’s companies to really do their share.

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What Really Happens When Emissions Vanish

Photo, posted July 16, 2014, courtesy of Mike Mozart via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Getting Rid Of Hydrogen Sulfide | Earth Wise

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Hydrogen sulfide gas produces the characteristic smell of rotten eggs, sewers, stockyards, and landfills.  The petroleum industry produces thousands of tons of the stuff each year as a byproduct of the processes that remove sulfur from petroleum, natural gas, coal, and other products.  The industry faces substantial fines for emitting hydrogen sulfide, but remediation is expensive.

Researchers at Rice University have developed a method for turning hydrogen sulfide into hydrogen gas and sulfur in a single step.  Called plasmonic photocatalysis, it not only gets rid of an undesirable substance, it does so by producing valuable byproducts.

The established way of getting rid of hydrogen sulfide is called the Claus process.  It requires multiple steps, including some that require combustion chambers heated to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.  The end product is sulfur and water.

The Rice University process gets all of its energy from light.  A surface of grains of silicon dioxide is dotted with tiny gold nanoparticles.  These particles interact strongly with a specific wavelength of visible light and cause plasmonic reactions that create short-lived, high-energy electrons that drive the catalysis of hydrogen sulfide.  Given that the process requires only visible light and no external heating, it should be relatively straightforward to scale up using solar energy or very efficient LED lamps.

The new hydrogen sulfide remediation technology has been licensed by a Houston-based startup company with more than 60 employees whose founders include some of the Rice researchers.  The process may end up being efficient enough and cheap enough for cleaning up non-industrial sources of hydrogen sulfide such as sewers and animal waste.

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New catalyst can turn smelly hydrogen sulfide into a cash cow

Photo, posted July 8, 2021, courtesy of Doug Letterman via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Lab-Grown Meat Is Legal | Earth Wise

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We’ve heard more and more about laboratory meat.  Other names for it are cultured meat, cultivated meat, or test tube meat.  Whatever name ends up sticking, the idea is to take living cells from animals and grow them in a controlled laboratory environment to produce a meat product that doesn’t involve the slaughter of any animals.  Supporters say cultured meat is more efficient and environmentally friendly than traditional livestock.  Livestock agriculture is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, uses vast amounts of land, and consumes much of the world’s fresh water.

Years ago, we reported on a company called Memphis Meats, which was one of a number of companies developing techniques for harvesting cells from animal tissues and using them to grow edible flesh in bioreactors.

Recently, that company – now called Upside Foods – has become the first company to receive FDA approval declaring their meat product to be safe for human consumption.  The USDA still needs to give its approval and it may be a little while longer before Upside’s first chicken products will end up in supermarkets.  There are more than 150 cultivated meat companies around the world backed by billions of dollars in investments.  The FDA is in ongoing discussions with multiple firms in the business.

Upside Foods, based in the San Francisco Bay area, is planning to market chicken, beef meatballs, and duck in the near future.  Other companies are working on seafood products.  Up until now, Singapore has been the only country in which lab-grown meat products are legally sold to consumers.  With this landmark FDA ruling, that is all about to change.

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US declares lab-grown meat safe to eat in ‘groundbreaking’ move

Photo, posted April 15, 2008, courtesy of Andrew Otto 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

Glacial Loss In The Swiss Alps | Earth Wise

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In 2022, glaciers in the Swiss Alps melted more than in any year on record.   This is the latest piece of bad news for the country’s glaciers, which have lost more than half of their volume of ice since the 1930s.

The melting season for Switzerland’s snow and ice typically starts in May and ends in early October.  This year’s melting season caused glaciers in the Diablerets mountain group to thin by an average of 13 feet, which is 3 times the amount of thinning observed over the past decade.   The Tsanfleuron pass between two of the glaciers is now exposed as bare rock for the first time in several thousand years. Across Switzerland, glaciers lost about 6% of their remaining volume just this year.  The previous worst year for glaciers was 2003, when losses were nearly 4%. 

There was significant melting this year in part because of the small amount of snowfall over the winter.  That snow melted quickly, being sped up by the warming effect of dust from the Sahara Desert falling on the snow.  By early summer, there was no longer a protective blanket of snow on the glaciers, exposing them to summer heat.

The loss of glaciers is far more serious than the disappearance of aesthetically pleasing landscape features.   Glaciers act as reservoirs of water that persist through the summer months.  Melt from glaciers provides water to ecosystems and creates habitats for plants and animals.  Cold runoff from glaciers affects downstream water temperatures which have a major impact on insects, fish, and other creatures.  Globally, melting glaciers contribute more than 20% of the observed ongoing sea-level rise.

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Rocky Road for Swiss Glaciers

Photo, posted June 22, 2015, courtesy of Dennis Jarvis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

New York Bans Some Crypto Mining | Earth Wise

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Crypto mining, the arcane process by which cryptocurrencies are generated, is incredibly energy-intensive.  As of this past summer, global electricity usage for the activity is as much as 240 billion kilowatt-hours per year, which is more than many entire countries use (for example Australia and Argentina.)  Crypto mining consumes as much electricity as all the conventional computer data centers in the world.

All that energy usage is problematic for the environment, but a growing practice has made it far worse.  Crypto miners have been re-powering decommissioned fossil fuel power plants to produce electricity strictly for mining operations.  Doing so eliminates the climate benefits achieved by shutting down those plants.

The New York State Legislature passed a bill in June that would place a two-year moratorium on permits to re-power fossil fuel plants.  It does not prevent crypto mining from existing generation sources.  The bill had sat on the governor’s desk until after the recent election.   But in late November, Governor Hochul signed the bill despite considerable lobbying against it.

The temporary ban was heavily opposed by cryptocurrency industry groups, to no surprise.  While some states actually offer tax incentives to lure crypto mining operations, supporters of the legislation hope that New York’s action may cause others to follow its lead and stop the reactivation of old fossil fuel plants.

The two-year moratorium will allow time to properly evaluate the impact of the crypto mining industry on the state’s climate goals.  It is pretty obvious that reactivating old, retired fossil fuel power plants as an energy source is a move in the wrong direction.

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New York Enacts 2-Year Ban on Some Crypto-Mining Operations

Photo, posted February 27, 2021, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Deforestation-Free Pledges | Earth Wise

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Deforestation is the purposeful clearing of forested land. Forests are cut down to make space for animal grazing, agriculture, and to obtain wood for fuel, manufacturing, and construction. Deforestation has greatly altered landscapes around the world and continues to do so today. 

Deforestation is the second largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, trailing only fossil fuel use. Deforestation can lead to all sorts of problems, including biodiversity loss, soil erosion, desertification, and flooding.  Deforestation also threatens peoples’ livelihoods and increases inequality and conflict.

As a result, many companies around the world have made pledges to remove deforestation from their supply chains.  In fact, more than 94 companies had adopted zero-deforestation commitments by 2021.  But while these companies are talking the talk, they don’t seem to be walking the walk. 

According to a new study recently published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, companies’ deforestation-free supply chain pledges have barely impacted forest clearance in the Amazon. 

The research team from the University of Cambridge, Boston University, ETH Zurich, and New York University found corporate pledges to not purchase soybeans grown on land deforested after 2006 have only reduced tree clearance in the Brazilian Amazon by 1.6% between 2006 and 2015.  The researchers found that if these pledges had been implemented, the current levels of deforestation in Brazil could be reduced by approximately 40%.  

According to the research team, the findings of the study indicate that private sector efforts are not enough to stop deforestation. Political leadership will also be vital to forest conservation efforts.

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Companies’ ‘deforestation-free’ supply chain pledges have barely impacted forest clearance in the Amazon, researchers say

Photo, posted November 18, 2020, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Perennial Rice | Earth Wise

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People have been cultivating rice for more than 9,000 years.  Cultivated rice is an annual crop which is often extended to two crops a year by a process called ratooning, which is cutting back annual rice to obtain a second, weaker harvest.

An extensive project involving multiple institutions in China, the U.S., and Australia has been developing perennial rice.  The researchers developed it through hybridization, crossing a type of Asian domesticated annual rice with a wild perennial rice from Africa.  Using modern genetic tools to identify candidate plants, the team identified a promising hybrid in 2007, planted large-scale field experiments in 2016, and released the first commercial perennial rice variety, called PR23, in 2018.

The researchers spent five years studying the performance of the perennial rice alongside annual rice on farms in China’s Yunnan Province.  For the most part, the yield of the perennial rice was equivalent to that of annual rice over a period of four years. 

Because farmers don’t have to plant rice each season, growing perennial rice requires almost 60% less labor and saves nearly half the costs of seed, fertilizer, and other inputs.

Perennial rice is already changing the lives of more than 55,000 smallholder farmers in southern China and Uganda.  The economic benefits vary by location, but overall profit increases ranged from 17% to 161% over annual rice.

There are already three perennial rice varieties available to farmers, but researchers aren’t done refining the crop.  They plan to use their methodology to enhance traits such as aroma, disease resistance, and drought tolerance to newer versions.

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Farmers in China, Uganda move to high-yielding, cost-saving perennial rice

Photo, posted February 25, 2002, courtesy of Matthieu Lelievre via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Fuel From Coffee Grounds | Earth Wise

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The world drinks a lot of coffee.  Americans alone consume 400 million cups a day.  Each cup of coffee results in about half an ounce of coffee grounds.  Adding that up, this country produces over 6,000 tons of coffee grounds each day.  While coffee grounds are not particularly harmful, that is an awful lot of waste that mostly ends up in landfills or is incinerated.

Researchers at Aston University in the UK have developed a method of producing high-quality biodiesel fuel from coffee grounds.  Their study was published in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.

The technique consists of growing a particular species of microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) directly on spent coffee grounds.  The coffee grounds provide both the nutrients for the microalgae and a structure upon which it can grow.   Exposing the algae to light for 20 hours a day and dark for just four hours a day produced the best quality biodiesel.

Microalgae is well-known as a feedstock for biodiesel production.  Previously, it has been grown on materials like polyurethane foam or nylon which don’t provide any nutrients.   Using the coffee grounds as the substrate for growth means that no external nutrients are needed.

The resultant enhanced biodiesel produces minimal emissions and good engine performance and meets both US and European specifications.  This feedstock for producing biodiesel is ideal since it doesn’t require any competition with food crops and instead makes use of a widely available waste product.  The hope is that it may reduce the cutting down of palm trees to extract oil for biofuel.  In southeast Asia, this has been a major source of deforestation and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

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Aston University researchers ‘feed’ leftover coffee grounds to microalgae to produce low emission biodiesel

Photo, posted October 13, 2007, courtesy of David Joyce via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Cost Of Heat Waves | Earth Wise

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Heat waves are defined as periods of abnormally hot weather generally lasting more than two days. To be considered a heat wave, the recorded temperatures must be substantially above the historical averages for a given area. According to climate scientists, anthropogenic climate change is likely causing heat waves to increase in both frequency and intensity.  

According to a new study by researchers from Dartmouth University, climate change-driven severe heat waves have cost the world economy trillions of dollars since the early 1990s. 

In the study, which was recently published in the journal Science Advances, researchers combined in-depth economic data for regions worldwide with the average temperature for the hottest five-day period —a commonly used measurement of heat intensity—for each region in each year.  The research team found that between 1992 and 2013, heat waves statistically coincided with variations in economic growth and that an estimated $16 trillion was lost to the effects of high temperatures on human health, productivity and agricultural output.

The results of the study underscore issues of climate justice and inequality.  According to researchers, the economic costs of extreme heat have been and will be disproportionately borne by the world’s poorest nations.  While economic losses due to extreme heat events averaged 1.5% of GDP per capita for the world’s wealthiest regions, the researchers found that low-income regions suffered a loss of 6.7% of GDP per capita.  Most of these low-income nations have contributed the least to climate change. 

According to the research team, immediate action is needed now to protect vulnerable people during the hottest days of the year.

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Heat Waves Have Cost World Economy Trillions of Dollars

Photo, posted July 23, 2021, courtesy of Martin Fisch (marfis75) via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Renewable Energy Booming in India | Earth Wise

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India is the country with the second largest population in the world – over 1.4 billion people – second only to China – and will undoubtedly pass China soon based on population trends in the two countries.   India is the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide, after China and the U.S.  With its rapidly growing population and an economy heavily dependent on coal and oil, emissions in India are on a steep upward trajectory.  Currently, fossil fuels account for about 60% of India’s installed energy capacity.  It is essential that actions are taken to curb its rapid increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

To that end, India’s renewables sector is booming.  The country is projected to add 35 to 40 gigawatts of renewable energy each year until 2030.  That’s enough energy to power up 30 million more homes each year.  The country has established a target of producing 50% of its electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by the end of this decade.

 India is expected to reach over 400 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030

according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis and Climate Energy Finance.  The Indian government’s own projections estimate that the country will reach 500 gigawatts of renewable capacity in that timeframe.

As is the case with China, a country with an enormous population undergoing major economic growth and modernization has vast energy needs.  While it is imperative for the entire world that India puts a cap on its growing greenhouse gas emissions, it is a difficult challenge for an energy-hungry country.

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Renewable energy booms in India

Photo, posted November 14, 2011, courtesy of Amaury Laporte via Flickr.

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