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Halloween pumpkins

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According to the National Retail Federation, spending on Halloween festivities this year by the 72% of Americans who plan to celebrate is expected to total $11.6 billion – or about $104 per person.  The annual consumer survey also found that 67% of Americans plan to pass out candy this year, and nearly 50% of Americans plan to carve a pumpkin.

To produce enough pumpkins for Halloween, farmers grow lots of them every year.  In fact, more than two billion were grown in 2020 alone.  But the vast majority of pumpkins are never eaten; instead, most are carved and placed on porches across the country.  This means Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars on pumpkins annually just to toss them in the trash when Halloween ends. 

When pumpkins are placed in landfills, they produce methane gas.  Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that affects climate change by contributing to increased warming. 

Instead of throwing pumpkins into the landfill, there are several responsible ways to dispose of them. 

If the pumpkin is still in good shape, use the outer, meaty part of the pumpkin to make pumpkin puree.  The pumpkin seeds can also be scooped out, rinsed, seasoned, and then baked in the oven, resulting in a delicious snack.

Pumpkins also have the potential to turn into great soil through composting. Pumpkins can help naturally add moisture to compost piles that need to be damp in order to effectively decompose food waste.   

If eating or composting the pumpkins isn’t an option, consider donating them to a local farm.  Farmers will often collect pumpkins as treats for their pigs, goats, and other animals. 

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Halloween Retail Holiday and Seasonal Trends

Ready to toss out your pumpkins? Here’s how to keep them out of the landfill

US grows over 2 billion pumpkins yearly

Photo, posted November 8, 2014, courtesy of Martin Brigden via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Rising methane emissions

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Methane is a colorless and odorless gas that occurs abundantly in nature and is also a product of certain human activities.  It’s a short-lived but highly potent greenhouse gas and, as a result, is a major driver of climate change.  In fact, methane heats the atmosphere nearly 90 times faster than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. 

Despite a global pledge from more than 150 nations to reduce methane emissions by 30% this decade, methane emissions continue to rise.  In fact, according to a new paper led by researchers from Stanford University, total annual methane emissions have increased 20% over the past two decades. 

The paper, which was recently published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, found that atmospheric concentrations of methane today are more than 2.6 times higher than in pre-industrial times.  In fact, atmospheric methane concentrations are currently the highest they’ve been in at least 800,000 years.

Methane emissions from coal mining, oil and gas production and use, cattle and sheep ranching, and decomposing organic waste in landfills are responsible for driving the growth.  In 2020, the most recent year for which data was available, nearly 400 million tons – or about two-thirds – of global methane emissions came directly from human activities. 

Methane concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere have increased at record speed over the past five years.  According to the research team, only the European Union and possibly Australia seem to have decreased methane emissions from human activities over the past two decades.  This trend “cannot continue if we are to maintain a habitable climate.”

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Methane emissions are rising faster than ever

Photo, posted December 4, 2010, courtesy of Dani Mettler via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The impact of climate change on agriculture

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Agriculture is a major part of the climate problem and remains one of the hardest human activities to decarbonize.  Agriculture is responsible for approximately 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

On farms around the world, excess fertilizer gets broken down by microbes in the soil, releasing nitrous oxide into the atmosphere.  Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas that is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

According to a sweeping global research review recently published in the journal Science, greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are now 18 times higher than they were in the 1960s. 

The research, which was co-written by professors at the University of Minnesota with more than 20 experts around the world, also reveals the likelihood of an emergent feedback loop between climate and agriculture.  As the changing climate puts more pressure on the global food supply, agriculture will, out of necessity, adopt practices that may exacerbate its environmental impact. Without changes in agriculture, this feedback loop could make it impossible to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 

The research identifies several agricultural practices that could improve efficiency and stabilize our food supply in the decades to come, including precision farming, perennial crop integration, agrivoltaics, nitrogen fixation, and novel genome editing. 

Finding ways to reduce the warming impact of agriculture while maintaining high crop yields are essential to both mitigating climate change and protecting our food supply from its impacts.

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Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture Suggests Even Greater Challenges to the Environment, Global Food Supply and Public Health

Photo, posted October 16, 2010, courtesy of Timlewisnm via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The cost of methane emissions

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Stanford University-led research has determined that American oil and gas operations are emitting more than 6 million tons of methane each year.  The emissions come from both intentional vents and unintentional leaks. 

Methane is the main component of natural gas and losing that much of it through leakage is costing the industry a billion dollars a year just in lost revenue.  Adding in the harm to the economy and human well-being caused by adding this much potent greenhouse gas to the atmosphere is estimated to increase the cost of these emissions to $10 billion a year.

These emission and cost estimates are roughly three times the level predicted by the U.S. government.  The Stanford numbers are based on roughly a million aerial measurements of wells, pipelines, storage, and transmission facilities in six of the nation’s most productive oil and gas regions located in Texas, New Mexico, California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Utah.  These areas account for 52% of U.S. onshore oil production and 29% of gas production.

The survey also found that fewer than 2% of the methane emitters are responsible for 50-80% of emissions in four of the regions.  It also found that midstream infrastructure – which includes gathering and transmission pipelines, compressor stations, and gas processing plants – is responsible for about half of total emissions.

While the federal government estimates that methane leakage averages about 1% of gas production, the new survey puts the number at 3%, and some regions lose almost 10% to leakage.

Better tracking and fixing these leaks – especially the larger ones –  is essential for climate change mitigation.

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Methane emissions from U.S. oil and gas operations cost the nation $10 billion per year

Photo, posted June 5, 2015, courtesy of Dave Houseknecht / USGS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A billion pound problem

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Nearly two billion pounds of pumpkins are grown each year in the U.S.  But we actually don’t eat the vast majority of them.  Instead, most pumpkins are carved or otherwise decorated, and placed on porches across the country during Halloween.  But now that the holiday has come and gone, what happens to all those sagging masterpieces?

Simply put, we usually just throw them out.  In the days after Halloween, as much as 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkin winds up in landfills.  When left there to decompose, the pumpkins produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas that affects climate change by contributing to increased warming. 

Here are some ways to keep pumpkins out of the landfills this year and make Halloween festivities more sustainable. 

If the pumpkin is still in good shape, use the outer, meaty part of the pumpkin to make a fresh version of pumpkin puree.  Pumpkin puree is a common ingredient in baked goods like muffins, breads, and pies, especially during this time of the year.  The pumpkin seeds can also be scooped out, rinsed, and salted or spiced, and then baked in the oven, resulting in a delicious snack.

Pumpkins also have the potential to turn into great soil through composting. Pumpkins are just over 90% water, which help naturally add moisture to compost piles that need to be damp to effectively decompose food waste.

If eating or composting the pumpkins isn’t an option, consider donating them to a local farm.  Farmers will often collect pumpkins as treats for their pigs, goats, and other animals. 

The scariest part of Halloween shouldn’t be the waste. 

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Halloween is over. Here’s the most sustainable way to get rid of your jack-o’-lanterns, pumpkins, and gourds

Say Boo to Landfills – Compost Your Pumpkin After Halloween!

Photo, posted November 4, 2010, courtesy of William Warby via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Methane Emissions And The Paris Agreement | Earth Wise

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The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference in 2015.  Its goal is to strengthen the global response to climate change by committing to limit the rise in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and pursue efforts to limit that increase to just 1.5°C. 

Achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement requires reaching net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by or around 2050, as well as deep reductions in methane and other emissions. 

According to a new study by researchers from Simon Fraser University in Canada, reductions in methane emissions are needed urgently  if we are to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.  The study, which was recently published in the journal Nature’s Communications Earth & Environment, suggests that global warming levels could be kept below 2°C if methane mitigation efforts are initiated globally before 2030.  However, delaying methane mitigation to the year 2040 or beyond would increase the risk of exceeding 2°C, even if net-zero carbon dioxide emissions were achieved.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, second only to carbon dioxide in contributing to global temperature increases over the last two centuries.  However, methane is known to warm the planet 86 times more effectively than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

During the past 40 years, more than 60% of global methane emissions have been produced as a result of human activities, such as fossil fuel exploitation, livestock production, and waste from landfills.

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Delaying methane mitigation increases risk of breaching Paris Agreement climate goal, study finds

Photo, posted July 22, 2011, courtesy of Steven W. via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Methane From Thawing Permafrost | Earth Wise

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The Arctic permafrost contains a massive amount of carbon in the form of frozen soil, which contains remnants of plants and animals that died millennia ago.  Estimates are that there is 2 ½ times as much carbon trapped in this Arctic soil than there is in total in the atmosphere today.

As the Arctic warms, the permafrost is starting to thaw.  Once that happens, microbes begin to consume the previously frozen organic matter trapped in the soil.  As part of this process, the microbes produce large amounts of methane, which is an extremely potent greenhouse gas.   Thus, there continues to be great concern that wide-scale thawing of the permafrost would result in massive amounts of methane being released into the atmosphere.

A recent study in northern Sweden revealed a glimmer of hope.  The study gauged methane emissions from a swath of permafrost that thawed in the 1980s and another that thawed 10 or 15 years later. 

In the first area, as ice melted underground, water on the surface sank down into the soil.  As the surface dried out, new plants emerged that helped to keep methane emissions buried underground.

Grasses found in wet areas have straw-like structures that convey oxygen to their roots.  The straws also allow methane in the soil to escape into the atmosphere.  As the areas dry out, other plants lacking the straws can sometimes replace the grasses.  When methane can’t escape, soil bacteria break it down into carbon dioxide.

The result is that the permafrost releases only a tenth of the methane as expected.  The hope is that changes in plant cover driven by climate change may limit methane emissions from thawing permafrost.

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Thawing Permafrost In Sweden Releases Less Methane Than Feared, Study Finds

Photo, posted July 7, 2014, courtesy of NPS Climate Change Response via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Nitrous Oxide Is No Laughing Matter | Earth Wise

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Carbon dioxide is the most well-known of greenhouse gases.  But there are others deserving of their own spotlight.  Nitrous oxide is one of them.  It turns out that the same “laughing gas” once used by dentists as an anesthetic is pretty bad for the environment.  In fact, it’s more than 300 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and it can remain in the atmosphere for more than 100 years.

According to a new study by a team of international scientists, rising nitrous oxide emissions around the world are jeopardizing the climate goals of the Paris Agreement.  The growing use of nitrogen fertilizers in global food production is increasing atmospheric concentrations of nitrous oxide.

The study, which was led by Auburn University and recently published in the journal Nature, finds that nitrous oxide emissions are increasing faster than any emission scenario developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  The current trajectory would lead to global mean temperature increases well above 3°C from pre-industrial levels.  The Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to less than 2°C.    

According to the study, nitrous oxide levels have risen 20% from pre-industrial levels, with the fastest growth observed in the last 50 years due to emissions from human activities.  The largest contributors to nitrous oxide emissions come from East Asia, South Asia, South America, and Africa.  The United States, China, and India dominate nitrous oxide emissions from synthetic fertilizers, while Africa and South America dominate releases of nitrous oxide from natural sources, like livestock manure. 

Nitrous oxide emissions pose an increasing threat to the climate.  

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Nitrous oxide emissions pose an increasing climate threat, study finds

Photo, posted April 22, 2012, courtesy of Bill Meier via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Methane-Eating Bacteria And Greenhouse Gas Emissions | Earth Wise

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One of the great concerns about the warming Arctic temperatures is that thawing permafrost will release alarming amounts of methane into the atmosphere.  Organic material in the permafrost begins to decompose when temperatures rise, and methane is released in the process.

Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.  Methane’s lifetime in the atmosphere is much shorter than carbon dioxide, but it is more efficient at trapping radiation.  Pound for pound, the comparative impact of methane is more than 25 times greater than carbon dioxide.

A new study, published by scientists at Purdue University, has discovered a type of methane-oxidizing bacteria living in upland Arctic soils that could potentially be reducing the amount of methane emitted by decomposing permafrost.

The findings of the research indicate that the net greenhouse gas emissions from the Arctic may be much smaller than previously modeled because of the increased productivity of a type of bacteria known as high affinity methanotrophs, or HAMs.  This group of bacteria uses atmospheric methane as an energy source.  The emissions from wetlands will potentially be very large, but the contribution from the uplands will be mitigated by the bacteria.

Organic-rich soils, including permafrost, comprise only 13% of the Arctic land area and are the major source of methane emissions.  The other 87% of the region is dominated by mineral-rich soils that support HAMs.  Because of this, overall methane emissions continue to be less than climate models have predicted.

While this is good news, the researchers warn that Arctic emissions overall will continue to increase as shown in other studies.

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Methane-Eating Bacteria Could Help Decrease Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Thawing Arctic Tundra

Photo, posted July 12, 2016, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

How Much Cleaner Is Natural Gas?

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The ascendance of natural gas over coal during the past decade has been driven primarily by fracking technology that has provided large quantities of the stuff at low prices.  But beyond that, there are environmental issues as well.  Natural gas emits 50 to 60% less carbon dioxide when combusted in a new, efficient natural gas power plant compared with emission from a typical new coal plant.  It appears to be a win-win situation.

[Read more…] about How Much Cleaner Is Natural Gas?

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