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Greenhouse Gas Removal And Net Zero | Earth Wise

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Reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions can slow the progress of global warming but only reaching and sustaining net zero global emissions can halt the progress of climate change.

The move to renewable power and the use of electric transport are substantial and essential ways to reduce emissions.  But even if these transitions take place on a rapid timescale, they will not eliminate all emissions.  Many industrial activities and, especially, agriculture will continue to contribute substantial greenhouse gas emissions.   There are efforts to reduce the contributions of these things, but there are no zero-emission substitutes for most of them.

As a result, actually removing CO2 from the atmosphere once it is there is essential to achieve net zero emissions.  If greenhouse gas removal can be scaled up sufficiently, it opens the option of going “net negative”, which would be the ideal way to mitigate and, better still, reverse the effects of climate change.

There are multiple approaches to carbon dioxide removal.  Some are natural, involving ways of capturing and storing carbon in trees, biochar, and peatlands.  Others are technological.  An example is the system that has just gone into operation in Iceland that uses fans, chemicals, and heat to capture CO2 and then mineralize it in volcanic rock.   Another is a system being tested in the UK that captures CO2 from growing biomass and pipes it to storage under the North Sea.

Much of the attention on carbon capture technology is aimed at trapping the emissions from fossil fuel power plants, but the need to remove carbon dioxide that has entered the atmosphere in other ways is ultimately far greater.

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CO2 removal is essential to achieving net zero

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

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Deadly Urban Heat On The Rise | Earth Wise

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According to a new study by the Columbia Climate School, exposure to deadly urban heat has tripled since the 1980s.  The increase is the combined result of both rising global temperatures and booming urban population growth.

The study looked at more than 13,000 cities worldwide and found that incidents of extreme heat and humidity have increased dramatically.   It defined extreme heat as 30 degrees Celsius on the wet-bulb temperature scale that takes into account the effect of high humidity.  In 1983, there were 40 billion person-days under such conditions.  By 2016, the number was 119 billion.  More specifically, in 2016 1.7 billion people were subjected to such conditions on multiple days.

Sheer urban population growth accounted for two-thirds of the increase, while actual warming contributed a third.  Over recent decades, hundreds of millions of people have moved from rural areas to cities, which now hold more than half the world’s population.  And because of the urban heat island effect, temperatures in cities are generally higher than in the countryside.

In the United States, about 40 sizable cities have seen rapidly growing exposure to extreme heat, mainly clustered in Texas and the Gulf Coast.  Globally, nearly a quarter of the world’s population is affected by the increased incidence of extreme temperatures.

A study last year showed that combinations of heat and humidity literally beyond the limits of outdoor human survival have been popping up around the world.  A wet-bulb temperature reading of 30 – equivalent to 106 degrees Fahrenheit on the “real feel” heat index – is the point at which even most healthy people find it hard to function outside for long, and the unhealthy might become very ill or even die.

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Exposure to Deadly Urban Heat Worldwide Has Tripled in Recent Decades, Says Study

Photo, posted March 5, 2007, courtesy of Michael Phillips via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Wildfires And Giant Sequoias

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Two massive California wildfires that erupted during a lightning storm on September 9 have continued to threaten groves of giant sequoia trees in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains.  As of the beginning of October, flames from the KNP Complex fire had burned in or passed through 11 sequoia groves, including the famed Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park.

Hundreds of firefighters battled to protect some of the most renowned trees, including the 275-foot-tall General Sherman tree, widely considered to be the largest tree on earth by overall volume.  That tree and many near it are over 2,000 years old.

Firefighters wrapped the base of the General Sherman and several other trees with fire-resistant blankets to protect them from the intense heat of approaching fires.  Sequoias are actually well-adapted to fires because of their thick bark that protects them from heat.  But intense fires like the KNP Complex and Windy fires are more than the trees can handle.

As of the beginning of October, both fires continue to blaze, but thanks to the efforts of firefighters, most of the giant sequoias have survived.  One massive tree in the Giant Forest recently toppled over after burning for several days, but most are still standing and haven’t suffered serious damage.

As of early October, the two fires had blackened over 140,000 acres across national parks, national forests, the Tule River Indian Reservation, and local communities.  These two are among multiple wildfires burning in California this past summer.  The largest – the Dixie fire – has burned nearly a million acres as of early October.  In total, over 2.5 million acres have already burned in California this year.

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KNP Complex fire triggers flurry of new evacuations, as flames threaten more giant sequoia trees

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Hundreds of California firefighters battle to protect ancient sequoia groves from raging wildfires – with world’s largest tree General Sherman wrapped in aluminum foil blanket

Photo, posted November 5, 2017, courtesy of Ken Lund via Flickr.

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Wastewater And Ammonia | Earth Wise

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Ammonia is the second most produced chemical in the world.  More than half of it is used in agriculture to produce various kinds of fertilizer, to produce cotton defoliants that make cotton easier to pick, and to make antifungal agents for fruits.  Globally, ammonia represents more than a $50 billion a year market.

Current methods to make ammonia require enormous amounts of heat – generated by burning fossil fuels – to break apart nitrogen molecules so that they can bind to hydrogen to form the compound. Ammonia production accounts for about 2% of worldwide fossil energy use and generates over 400 million tons of CO2 annually.

Engineers at the University of Illinois Chicago have created a solar-powered electrochemical reaction that uses wastewater to make ammonia and does it with a solar-to-fuel efficiency that is 10 times better than previous comparable technologies.

The process uses nitrate – which is one of the most common groundwater contaminates – to supply nitrogen and uses sunlight to power the reaction.  The system produces nearly 100% ammonia with almost no hydrogen side reactions.  No fossil fuels are needed, and no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases are produced.  The new method makes use of a cobalt catalyst that selectively converts nitrate molecules into ammonia.

Not only is the reaction itself carbon-neutral, which is good for the environment, but if it is scaled up for industrial use, it will consume wastewater, thereby actually being good for the environment.  The new process is the subject of a patent filing and the researchers are already collaborating with municipal corporations, wastewater treatment centers, and others in industry to further develop the system.

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Combining sunlight and wastewater nitrate to make the world’s No. 2 chemical

Photo, posted August 29, 2018, courtesy of Montgomery County Planning Commission via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

People And The Earth’s Increasing Heat | Earth Wise

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A new study by Princeton University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had found clear evidence that human activity is the primary cause of the significant increase in heat stored in our planet.  In fact, the study found that there is less than a 1% chance that natural variability is the sole cause of the increase.

The researchers looked at data from satellite observations to determine the amount of energy received by the earth and the amount reflected and emitted by the Earth.  In a balanced physical system, the amount of incoming energy should equal the amount of outgoing energy.  But the earth’s system is not balanced at this point.  More energy is coming in than going out, which is driving changes in the climate system.  There have been other studies looking at the human influence on the climate, but this new study is the first to examine a 20-year continuous satellite energy balance record to see if natural fluctuations in the climate system or human activities is the primary driver for the significant change in the planet’s energy balance.

The study examined 50 different climate models to look at this energy balance under scenarios where there was no human influence.  These include changes in the sun’s output, volcanic eruptions, variations in pollution aerosols, and more.

The results, to no great surprise, are that increasing greenhouse gases over the last twenty years is by far the most important driver for the energy imbalance.  This imbalance is what is driving rising temperatures, increasing sea levels, and causing other climate changes.

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Human activities responsible for rapid increase in Earth’s heat

Photo, posted May 6, 2021, courtesy of Marlis Borger via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

July Was A Scorcher | Earth Wise

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July 2021 has the unfortunate distinction as being the world’s hottest month ever recorded according to global data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.   July is typically the warmest month of the year, but this July was the warmest month of any year on record.

The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was 62.07 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 1.67 degrees above the 20th century average.  This was the highest monthly average since records began 142 years ago.  It broke the previous record set in July 2016 and tied in 2019 and 2020.

The Northern Hemisphere was 2.77 degrees above average.  Asia had its hottest July on record.  Europe had its second hottest July on record.  Places like Africa, Australia, and New Zealand all had top-ten warmest Julys.

Other aspects of the changing climate included the observation that Arctic sea ice coverage for July was the fourth-smallest in the 43-year record.  Interestingly, Antarctic sea ice extent was actually above average in July.  Global tropic cyclone activity this year so far is above normal for the number of named storms.  In the Atlantic basin, the formation of the storm Elsa on July 1 was the earliest date for a 5th named storm.

It remains very likely that 2021 will rank among the 10 hottest years on record.  Extreme heat is a reflection on the long-term climate changes that were outlined recently in a major report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  These latest global observations add to the disturbing and disruptive path that the changing climate has set for the world.

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It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

Photo, posted July 15, 2021, courtesy of Lori Iverson/National Interagency Fire Center via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Soaring Heat And Inner-City Neighborhoods | Earth Wise

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The record-breaking heatwaves this summer have exposed the special vulnerability inner cities have to the effects of summer heat.  Climate change has exacerbated and supercharged heatwaves, as was seen in Seattle and Portland in late June.

Urban cores can be 10 degrees or more warmer than the surrounding countryside.  The urban heat island effect is a result of how cities are built, with so much pavement, so many buildings, and not enough trees.  On top of this, decades of disinvestment in neighborhoods where people of color live have left them especially vulnerable to heat as their homes are not able to cope with it.

In New York City, some residents of Hunts Point in the Bronx keep lists of neighbors they check on to help keep the most vulnerable alive during heat waves.  The city has subsidized 74,000 air conditioners for low-income, elderly residents, and is spending millions to plant trees.  In Phoenix, the hottest big city in the country, officials are working to develop new models for cooler public housing and cooling for streets and pedestrian corridors.

A study, published in 2020, looked at the linkage between higher heat island temperatures and past practices of redlining, where home loans and insurance were unavailable to people in neighborhoods of color.  In 94 of 108 communities studied, the formerly redlined neighborhoods had higher surface temperatures.

Cities are confronted with two heat problems:  emergencies that require immediate action to save lives, and long-term issues related to combating soaring temperatures in heat islands strengthened by global warming. In many cases, cities are not prepared for either problem.  Dealing with and adapting to heat is essential to the long-term viability and quality of life in our cities.

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A Triple Whammy Has Left Many Inner-City Neighborhoods Highly Vulnerable to Soaring Temperatures

Photo, posted May 27, 2014, courtesy of Dan DeLuca via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Coal In The UK And Asia | Earth Wise

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Coal was the driving force of the British industrial revolution beginning in the 18th century.  Coal was used for manufacturing iron, heating buildings, driving locomotives, and more.  Annual coal production in the UK peaked in the year 1913 at 316 million tons.  Until the late 1960s, coal was the main source of energy produced in the UK.

Recently, Britain announced that it plans to phase out coal power entirely by October 2024, one year earlier than its previous target date.  This is on the heels of a dramatic decline in coal usage over the past decade.  In 2012, coal accounted for 40% of the UK’s power generation.  By 2020, that number was 1.8%.

In both Europe and the United States, coal power is generally significantly more expensive than renewable power from the sun and wind.  As a result, market forces have driven the demise of coal power in those places.

The situation is different across much of Asia where coal power remains cost competitive.  Five Asian countries – China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Vietnam – still have plans to build more than 600 new coal-fired power plants, which is bad news for the environment.  In 2020, China produced more than half of the world’s coal power, which reflects both the growth of coal in Asia and its decline in the U.S. and Europe.

Despite all this, experts predict that it will be more expensive to run almost all coal plants globally than to build new renewable energy projects by the year 2026.  Sooner or later, coal power will no longer make its unfortunate contributions to the world.

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UK Aims to Dump Coal Early, While Asia Stays the Course

Photo, posted March 8, 2021, courtesy of Stanze via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Record Heat Across the Globe | Earth Wise

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While the Pacific Northwest was setting new records for high temperatures in June, many other places across the globe also experienced unprecedented heat.  Places in Russia and Scandinavia, including locations above the Arctic Circle, set new records for temperature.

The heatwave in Europe was the result of a persistent northward bulge in the polar jet stream.  This blocking pattern in the jet stream has been prevalent over Scandinavia this year and has contributed to unusually warm conditions there.  Further east, similar conditions have created unusual warm temperatures in Siberia.

On June 23, Moscow reached a high of 94.6 degrees, the hottest June temperature on record.  Helsinki, Finland set a record at 89.1 degrees, and both Belarus at 96.3 degrees and Estonia at 94.3 degrees set new records.  The town of Saskylah, north of the Arctic Circle in Siberia, measured almost 90 degrees on June 20. 

High temperature records have been broken in many places.  The all-time record high for June for all of Mexico fell at Mexicali in Baja California on June 17 when the temperature reached 125 degrees.  Palm Springs, California, while known for its desert heat, nonetheless set a new all-time high temperature of 123 degrees and also set a new record for the warmest overnight low temperature for a June night anywhere in North America at an unbelievable 105 degrees.

Stories like this have become all-too common in recent years and are undoubtedly going to occur with greater frequency as the world’s climate continues to react to the growing buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

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A Scorcher in Siberia and Europe

Photo, posted June 8, 2007, courtesy of Niko Pettersen via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Greenland Becoming Darker | Earth Wise

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According to research published by Dartmouth University, a weather pattern that pushes snowfall away from parts of Greenland’s ice sheet is causing the continent to become darker and warmer.

Reducing the amount of fresh, lighter-colored snow exposes older, darker snow on the surface of Greenland’s ice sheets.  Fresh snow is the brightest and whitest. The reflectivity of snow decreases fairly quickly as it ages. This decrease in albedo – or reflectivity – allows the ice sheet to absorb more heat and therefore melt more quickly. 

The research attributes the decrease in snowfall in Greenland to a phenomenon called atmospheric blocking in which persistent high-pressure systems hover over the ice sheet for up to weeks at a time.  Such systems have increased over Greenland since the mid-1990s.  They push snowstorms to the north, hold warmer air over Western Greenland, and reduce light-blocking cloud cover.

All of this contributes to Greenland melting faster and faster.  According to research cited in the study, the Greenland ice sheet has warmed by nearly 5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1982.  Overall, Greenland is experiencing the greatest melt and runoff rates in the last 450 years, at the minimum, and quite likely the greatest rates in the last 7,000 years.

The Greenland ice sheet is the second largest ice body in the world, after the Antarctic ice sheet.  It is 1,800 miles long and about 700 miles wide at its greatest width.  Its thickness is between 1.2 and 1.9 miles.  If the entire sheet were to melt, it would lead to a global sea level rise of 24 feet.  So, the darkening of Greenland is a source of great concern.

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Greenland Becoming Darker, Warmer as Snow Changes

Photo, posted April 3, 2012, courtesy of Francesco Paroni Sterbini via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Better Solar Evaporator | Earth Wise

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Water security is a serious global problem.  Nearly 1.5 billion people – including almost half a billion children – live in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability.  Less than 3% of the world’s water is fresh and demand for it is rising with increasing population growth, urbanization, and growing water needs from a range of sectors.

Researchers at the University of South Australia have developed a promising new technique that could help reduce or eliminate water stress for millions of people.  The technique uses highly efficient solar evaporation to obtain fresh water from seawater, brackish water, or even contaminated water.   According to the researchers, their technique can deliver enough daily fresh drinking water for a family of four from just one square meter of source water.

Solar evaporation has been the focus of a great deal of effort in recent years, but it has generally been found to be too inefficient to be practically useful.  The new technique overcomes those inefficiencies and can deliver fresh water at a fraction of the cost of existing technologies like reverse osmosis.

The system utilizes a highly efficient photothermal structure that sits on the surface of a water source and converts sunlight to heat, focusing energy precisely on the surface to rapidly evaporate the uppermost portion of the liquid.  The technique prevents any loss of solar energy and even draws additional energy from the bulk water and surrounding environment.

The system is built entirely from simple, everyday materials that are low cost, sustainable, and easily obtainable.

The technology has the potential to provide a long-term clean water solution to people who can’t afford other systems, and these are the places where such solutions are most needed.

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Sunlight to solve the world’s clean water crisis

Photo, posted November 13, 2016, courtesy of Steve Austin via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Prickly Pear As A Sustainable Crop | Earth Wise

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The fruits and pads of opuntia, better known as prickly pear cactus, find their way into people’s diets in many arid and semi-arid places around the world.  In Mexico, the pads are known as nopales and are used in a variety of dishes.  The pears themselves are used in jams, salads, and juices.

A five-year study by the University of Nevada Reno College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources investigated the prospects for cactus pear to become a major crop like soybeans and corn and to help provide a biofuel source.

As the climate changes, dry areas are going to get dryer and drought issues will increasingly affect traditional crops.

The study looked at the particular opuntia species called the spineless cactus pear and found that it had the highest fruit production while using up to 80% less water than some traditional crops.  Cactus pear can be used for both human consumption and livestock feed.  As a perennial crop, once the fruit and pads are harvested for food, the remaining biomass can be used for biofuel production.

Corn and sugar cane are the most utilized bioenergy crops right now, but these use three to six times more water than cactus pear.  The cactus pear productivity is on par with corn and sugar cane, but not only do they use a fraction of the water, they also have higher heat tolerance.

Over 40% of land area around the world is classified as semi-arid or arid.  There is enormous potential for planting cactus for carbon sequestration.  If nothing else, it makes great sense to grow cactus pear crops in abandoned areas that are marginal and may not be suitable for other crops.

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Study shows cactus pear as drought-tolerant crop for sustainable fuel and food

Photo, posted April 16, 2020, courtesy of Kevin Dooley via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Not All Trees Cool The Planet | Earth Wise

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A new study from Clark University has found that deforestation does not always contribute to planetary warming, as is generally assumed.  The researchers have found that there can be places where removing trees actually cools the planet.

Forests soak up carbon dioxide from the air and store it in the trees themselves and in the soil.   This process is important for slowing the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The new research focuses on a different effect that forests have on climate.  They are darker than other surfaces, which causes them to absorb more sunlight and retain heat.  This is known as the albedo effect.

In most places, the absorption of carbon outweighs the albedo effect and forests help cool the planet.  But there are some locations, including the Intermountain and Rocky Mountain West, where more forest actually leads to a hotter planet when both processes are taken into account.  State-of-the-art satellite remote sensing allowed the researchers to quantify the effects of forest loss in the United States.

The upshot of this research is that large-scale tree-planting initiatives, such as Canada’s 2Billion Trees Initiative and the Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees campaign need to make sure to put the right trees in the right places.

Every year, about a million acres of forest are being converted to non-forest across the lower 48 states as a result of suburban and exurban expansion and development.   It is important to take into account the albedo effect in trying to replace the climate-cooling capabilities of these disappearing forests by planting more trees.

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Clark geographer Christopher Williams: More trees do not always create a cooler planet

Photo, posted June 5, 2017, courtesy of Todd Petrie via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Climbing To Escape The Heat | Earth Wise

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Colorado has warmed by nearly 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1980s because of human-caused climate change.   As a result, many mammal species have shifted uphill to escape the heat.

The golden-mantled ground squirrel is a popular sight among tourists in the Rocky Mountains.  It is one of the most photographed animals there as they pose on rocks near roadsides and in campgrounds.  According to University of Colorado research recently published in the journal Ecology, these squirrels have shifted their range upward by 659 feet.  The new study looked at the ground squirrels along with 46 other small mammals.  On average, these animals have shifted their range upward by more than 400 feet since the 1980s.

The researchers visited multiple sites in Colorado’s Front Range and San Juan mountains over the course of several years to collect records of the current ranges of these 47 animals. They then compared the findings from their surveys to over 4,000 historic records from collections dating back to the 1980s.

The researchers expected to see some changes, but not of the magnitude they observed.  For example, before 1980, the pygmy shrew was never detected above about 9,800 feet in elevation.  Today, its maximum extent is more than 11,800 feet.

Montane mammals – which are those who already live at higher elevations – have moved up an additional 1,100 feet on average.  If this trend continues, some animals and even entire communities may be pushed to the tops of mountains with nowhere else to go.  According to the researchers, the study paints a stark picture of a mountain range in crisis.

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Small mammals climb higher to flee warming temperatures in the Rockies

Photo, posted September 6, 2002, courtesy of Franco Folini via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Pandemic And Global Temperatures | Earth Wise

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The early months of the Covid-19 pandemic last year saw dramatic reductions in travel and many forms of commerce.  With much of human activity greatly curtailed, greenhouse gas emissions were greatly reduced.   And yet, all of that did not slow down global warming: 2020 ended up tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record and atmospheric greenhouse gas levels reached a new high.

In order to understand how this came about, it is necessary to understand the complex climate influences of different types of emissions from power plants, motor vehicles, industrial facilities, and other sources.  The fact is that some types of pollution actually have a cooling effect rather than contributing to global warming.

Tiny industrial pollution particles called aerosols actually make clouds brighter, causing them to reflect away more solar heat from the surface of the planet.   During the drastic shutdown last year, the biggest emissions decline was from the most polluting industries.  The reduction of aerosols had immediate, short-term effects on temperatures.  These types of pollutants are very bad for human health, but when they are present, they do have the effect of reducing temperatures.

It is important to keep in mind that carbon dioxide spreads through the Earth’s atmosphere and stays there for a century or more, trapping heat on a global scale.  Industrial aerosols stay relatively concentrated in the region where they are emitted and are often removed by rain and winds within a few weeks.  So, their cooling effect doesn’t spread very far or last very long.

Overall, the initial pandemic slowdown probably didn’t have any real long-term impact on the climate but over the short term, the effects were not as simple as one might expect.

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Covid-19 Cut Gases That Warm the Globe But a Drop in Other Pollution Boosted Regional Temperatures

Photo, posted July 7, 2020, courtesy of Joey Zanotti via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Short-Lived Climate Forcing Pollutants | Earth Wise

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When talking about the causes of climate warming, it is common practice to bundle together various pollutants and express their effects in terms of “CO2 equivalence.”  This involves comparing climate effects of the pollutants on a 100-year timescale.  Recent research from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Germany points out the problems with this approach.

One of the worst qualities of carbon dioxide is that it accumulates in the atmosphere.  Once it gets there, it stays there for anywhere from decades to millennia.  On the other hand, short-lived climate forcing pollutants – or SLCPs – stay in the atmosphere for significantly shorter periods.  However, some of these are far more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere.  As a result, the atmosphere and climate system react much more quickly to reductions in the emission of these pollutants.

The IASS research study determined that reducing SLCP emissions is an important way to slow near-term climate warming as well as having other positive benefits such as reducing air pollution and improving crop yields.  A number of studies indicate that a rapid reduction in SLCP emissions could slow the rate of climate change and reduce the risk of triggering dangerous and potentially irreversible climate tipping points.

Examples of SLCPs are the methane gas emitted from landfills and hydrofluorocarbons that are still widely used as coolants. HFCs only persist in the atmosphere for 15 years but are nearly 4,000 times more effective in trapping heat over a 20-year period.

In order to mitigate the most harmful consequences of climate change, we need to minimize both the near-term climate impacts of SLCPs and the long-term climate impacts of carbon dioxide.

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More Than Just CO2: It’s Time To Tackle Short-Lived Climate-Forcing Pollutants

Photo, posted March 10, 2020, courtesy of Jonathan Cutrer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Geothermal Power In The Energy Transition | Earth Wise

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The heat beneath the earth represents a vast repository of energy that in principle could provide for a significant part of our needs.  In some places, geothermal energy is easy to get to and is already being exploited.  California and Nevada operate dozens of geothermal electric generating plants.  Boise Idaho heats 92 of its biggest buildings with the river of hot water that flows 3,000 feet below the city.  In total, the U.S. produces enough geothermal electricity to power more than a million homes.

But all these examples make use of relatively rare local features that are not available to the great majority of locations.  As a result, geothermal energy has generally not been viewed as being able to play a major role in the alternative energy transition.

A number of experts around the world disagree with this assessment.  To a fair extent due to the deep-drilling techniques and knowledge about underground formations developed by the oil and gas industry during the fracking boom, there is growing interest in a type of geothermal energy called deep geothermal that accesses hot temperatures in the earth’s mantle as far down as two or three miles.

Deep geothermal can either access extremely hot water that exists down at those depths or water can be injected into hot rock down there, which is a technology known as enhanced geothermal systems.

There is enormous untapped potential for geothermal energy.  A 2019 report by the U.S. Department of Energy says that by 2050, geothermal could provide 8.5% of the United States’ electricity as well as direct heat.  Geothermal could be an important part of the so-called all-of-the-above future energy strategy.

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Can Geothermal Power Play a Key Role in the Energy Transition?

Photo, posted August 2, 2008, courtesy of ThinkGeoEnergy via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Record Heat In The Arctic | Earth Wise

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By mid-November, the Arctic stays dark around the clock and twilight does not return until the end of January.  But even as winter darkness descended upon the Arctic this year, record-breaking high temperatures in the region continued.  In late November, temperatures across the entire Arctic basin were 12 degrees Fahrenheit above normal and some locations saw temperatures as high as 30 degrees above normal.

The entire summer and fall in the Arctic were characterized by exceptionally warm temperatures.  In June, the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk – located north of the Arctic Circle – registered a high temperature of 100.4 degrees.  The refreezing of the Arctic Ocean was greatly delayed this year.  The Northeast Passage along the Siberian Coast remained navigable for a record 112 days before freezing in November, breaking the previous record by more than a month.  The extent of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean in October was the lowest ever recorded for that month.

The strongest warming occurring in the Arctic is during the fall.  That is because rapidly disappearing sea ice is enabling the dark waters of the Arctic Ocean to absorb heat in the summer and then radiate it back into the atmosphere until late in the fall.  The Arctic region is heating up three times faster than the rest of the planet, which has led to the volume of sea ice decreasing by 2/3 in the past 40 years.

According to researchers, the extreme heat in Siberia this year would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change and became 600 times more likely because of human emissions of greenhouse gases.

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Record-shattering Warmth Pushes Arctic Temperatures to 12 Degrees F Above Normal

Photo, posted September 1, 2009, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey via Flickr. Photo Credit: Patrick Kelley, U.S. Coast Guard.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Recyclable Wind Turbines | Earth Wise

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The blades of modern wind turbines can be longer than the wing of a Boeing 747. Their useful lifetime is perhaps 20 years and after that, they can’t just be hauled away.  They end up being cut up with special industrial saws to create pieces small enough to be strapped to a tractor-trailer.  Then, they end up in landfills.  There are thousands of blades being removed each year and those numbers are growing.

Wind turbine blades are currently manufactured using thermoset resin, which cannot be recycled.  It is also energy-intensive and manpower-intensive to produce.

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in partnership with Arkema Inc of Pennsylvania have demonstrated the feasibility of using thermoplastic resin instead to make wind turbine blades.  That material can be recycled and can also enable longer, lighter-weight, and lower-cost blades.  Using thermoplastic could also allow manufacturers to build blades on site, alleviating the problems of transporting ever larger turbine blades.

Current blades are made primarily of composite materials like fiberglass infused with thermoset resin.  The manufacturing process requires additional heat to cure the resin, which adds cost and time.  Thermoplastic resin cures at room temperature and requires less labor.  With regard to recycling, thermoplastic resin, when heated above a certain temperature, melts into its original liquid resin and can be reused. 

NREL has demonstrated the feasibility of the thermoplastic resin system by manufacturing nearly identical blades using both the standard materials and the thermoplastics.  NREL has also developed a technoeconomic model to evaluate the cost benefits of using thermoplastic resin.

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News Release: NREL Advanced Manufacturing Research Moves Wind Turbine Blades Toward Recyclability

Photo, posted June 28, 2008, courtesy of Patrick Finnegan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Finding Methane Leaks from Space | Earth Wise

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There is growing concern about the climate effects of methane leaking from oil and gas wells.  The 20-year global warming potential of methane is 84, meaning that over a 20-year period, it traps 84 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide.  Global methane concentrations have increased by nearly a factor of 3 since the industrial revolution.

More than a century of oil and gas drilling has left behind millions of abandoned wells, many of which are leaching pollutants into the air and water.   In the U.S. alone, more than 3.2 million abandoned oil and gas wells emitted 280,000 tons of methane just in 2018.  And the data is incomplete.

Part of the problem is finding out which wells are leaking.  Ground-based sensors or airplanes and drones are effective ways to find leaks but considering how many wells there are to check, the costs are considerable, and the process is time consuming and complicated. 

New technology is coming along that uses satellites to detect methane leaks.  A Canadian company called GHGSat recently used satellites to detect what it has called the smallest methane leak ever seen from space and has begun selling data to emitters interested in pinpointing leaks.

Another company, New York-based Bluefield Technologies, plans a group of satellites for launch in 2023 that promises even finer resolution.  The Environmental Defense Fund, with support from Jeff Bezos’ Earth Fund, plans to launch MethaneSAT in the next couple of years, which is designed to find small sources of methane.

Research at Stanford University determined that just 5% of methane leaks produce around half the total leakage. 

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New Technology Claims to Pinpoint Even Small Methane Leaks From Space

Photo, posted June 8, 2011, courtesy of Jeremy Buckingham via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

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