risks

Bananas and climate change

April 17, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Bananas are one of the most widely produced fruits globally, with more than 100 million tons grown every year. They are a key export crop worth approximately $11 billion annually. Bananas are also a staple food in many tropical countries, playing a vital role in both the economies of these nations and in global food security.

The Cavendish variety of banana dominates commercial exports, accounting for nearly 47% of global production. However, the Cavendish banana is highly susceptible to diseases like Panama disease, prompting ongoing efforts to develop disease-resistant alternatives. The spread of these diseases is exacerbated by climate change, which alters growing conditions and weakens banana plants. Additionally, climate change poses further threats to the banana industry by impacting crop yields and distribution patterns.

In fact, a new study led by researchers from the University of Exeter in the U.K. has found that by 2080, rising temperatures will make growing bananas for export economically unsustainable in many regions of Latin America and the Caribbean. Colombia and Costa Rica will be among the countries most negatively impacted as they are expected to become too hot for optimal banana cultivation.

The study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Food, found that 60% of the regions currently producing bananas around the world will struggle to grow the fruit unless there are urgent interventions to tackle climate change. The researchers propose several adaptation strategies, including expanding irrigation systems, developing heat- and drought-resistant banana varieties, and helping banana producers manage climate-related risks.

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Climate change threatens future of banana export industry

Photo, posted June 26, 2024, courtesy of JJ Musgrove via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

New highs for carbon dioxide

April 11, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Last year was the hottest year on record and the ten hottest years on record have in fact been the last ten years. Ocean heat reached a record high last year and, along with it, global sea levels. Those are rising twice as fast as they did in the 1990s.

The World Meteorological Organization reports that the global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide reached a new observed high in 2023, which is the latest year for which global annual figures are available. The level was 420 ppm, which is the highest level it has been in 800,000 years.

The increase in carbon dioxide levels was the fourth largest one-year change since modern measurement began in the 1950s. The rate of growth is typically higher in El Niño years because of increases from fire emissions and reduced terrestrial carbon sinks.

Concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide – which are two other key greenhouse gases – also reached record high observed levels in 2023. Levels of both of these gases have also continued to increase in 2024.

The annually averaged global mean near-surface temperature in 2024 was 1.55 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 average. Apart from being the warmest year in the 175 years records have been kept, it is also above the 1.5-degree limit set as the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement. While a single year above 1.5 degrees of warming does not mean that the efforts to limit global warming have failed, it is a strong warning that the risks to human lives, economies, and the planet are increasing.

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Carbon Dioxide Levels Highest in 800,000 Years

Photo, posted January 30, 2018, courtesy of Johannes Grim via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Thawing permafrost in the Arctic

February 18, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Permafrost covers about a quarter of the landmass in the Northern Hemisphere. It stores vast quantities of organic carbon in the form of dead plant matter. As long as it stays frozen, it is no threat to the climate. But as permafrost thaws, microorganisms start breaking down that plant matter and large amounts of carbon are released into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide and methane.

Scientists estimate that there could be two and a half times as much carbon trapped in Arctic permafrost as there is in the atmosphere today.

Thawing permafrost poses various risks to the Arctic environment and the livelihoods of its people. According to a new study led by researchers from the University of Vienna in Austria, Umeå University in Sweden, and the Technical University of Denmark, thawing permafrost threatens the way of life of up to three million people.

To identify these risks, the research team studied four Arctic regions in Norway, Greenland, Canada, and Russia between 2017 and 2023. The research, which was recently published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, identified five key hazards posed by the thawing permafrost: infrastructure failure, disruption of mobility and supply, decreased water quality, challenges for food security, and exposure to diseases and contaminants.

These are present developments – not future dangers. Global scientific cooperation, policy interventions, and investment in research are critical to mitigate the impact of thawing permafrost and address the broader consequences it brings.

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A transdisciplinary, comparative analysis reveals key risks from Arctic permafrost thaw

Thawing permafrost threatens up to three million people in Arctic regions

Photo, posted February 9, 2017, courtesy of Benjamin Jones / USGS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Climate risks for apple-growing areas

January 31, 2025 By EarthWise 2 Comments

The changing climate is creating challenges for some of the most productive apple growing regions in America. A study by Washington State University analyzed over 40 years of climate conditions that impact the growth cycle of apple trees.

Many growing areas face increased climate risk, but the top three apple-producing counties are among the most impacted. Yakima County in Washington is the country’s largest apple producer with more than 48,000 acres of apple orchards. Kent County in Michigan and Wayne County in New York (located east of Rochester) are the next two largest.

The study looked at six metrics that affect apple production. Two of these metrics relate to extremes: extreme heat days (with temperatures above 93 degrees) that can cause multiple problems and warm nights (with minimum temperatures above 59 degrees) that adversely affect coloration.

Other metrics included the number of cold days, the last day of spring frost, and the number of growing degree days, which are the number of days above a certain temperature that are conducive for apples to grow.

Changes to these metrics can impact apple production, change the time when apple flowers bloom, increase risk of sunburn on apples, and affect apple appearance and quality. In many places, nearly all of these metrics are changing in an undesirable direction.

Apples are the most consumed fruit in the United States. 27,000 American producers supply an industry with a downstream value of $23 billion. Apples are a big deal.

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Prime apple-growing areas in US face increasing climate risks

Photo, posted August 8, 2020, courtesy of Sue Thompson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Corals and climate change

December 24, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Climate change is a major threat to coral reefs around the world. Ocean warming triggers coral bleaching – a stress response where corals expel the symbiotic algae essential for their survival. If coral bleaching is severe, it can lead to coral death.

A new study led by scientists from Newcastle University in England suggests that corals are unlikely to adapt to ocean warming quickly enough to keep pace with global warming, unless there are rapid reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions.

The study, which was recently published in the journal Science, found that coral heat tolerance adaptation via natural selection could keep pace with ocean warming, but only if the climate goals of the Paris Agreement are realized. In the Paris Agreement, countries agreed to limit global warming by the end of the century to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

However, current climate policies around the world have the globe on track to warm by three degrees Celsius. According to the research team, this could lead to significant reductions in reef health, elevated risks of local coral extinctions, and considerable uncertainty in the so-called “evolvability” of corals.

Coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth. They are often referred to as the “rainforests of the sea” because they support an incredible variety of marine life. They provide essential ecosystem services, such as protecting coastlines from erosion and storm surges, supporting fisheries, and serving as a source of income through tourism. Coral reef health is vital for the health of the planet.

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Coral adaptation unlikely to keep pace with global warming

Photo, posted June 9, 2012, courtesy of Bokissa Private Island Resort via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Making wind turbines safer for birds

September 18, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There are people who oppose the installation of wind turbines for a variety of reasons. It is true that wind turbines can be dangerous to birds. Estimates are that about 250,000 birds are killed flying into wind turbines each year in the U.S.

However, this data needs to be looked at in comparison to bird deaths from flying into electrical lines (25 million), vehicles (214 million), and building glass (at least 600 million). And even these figures pale in comparison to the more than 2 billion birds killed by domestic cats each year.

Despite these facts, it would still be great if fewer birds died from flying into wind turbines. Researchers at Oregon State University are part of a team looking at reducing bird collision risks from wind turbines by painting a single blade of the turbine black.

Recent research in Norway found that painting a single turbine blade black reduced the number of bird collisions by nearly 72%. Why should this work? The hypothesis is that the black-painted blades disrupt the visual uniformity of the airspace around the turbines and makes them more noticeable to birds, which prompts avoidance behavior.

The Norwegian data is based on a relatively small sample size and the Oregon State researchers as well as others in Spain, Sweden, and South Africa are working on more rigorous and comprehensive studies.

The hope is that this rather simple strategy could make windfarms safer for birds. Unfortunately, this approach is not likely to be very effective with bats, which rely more on auditory cues rather than visual cues.

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Scientists studying impact of painting wind turbine blade black to reduce bird collisions

Photo, posted May 21, 2024, courtesy of Roy Harryman via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Natural solutions for coastal defense

May 30, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Protecting coastal cities and towns from the dangers of tsunamis, storm surges, and sea-level rise has become an ever-increasing challenge. There are so-called hard coastal defenses as well as nature-based solutions. A new study by the University of Tokyo has found that combining the two types of defenses may be the most effective way to protect, support, and enrich coastal communities.

Sea walls, dikes, dams, and breakwaters are the traditional hard measures. They are popular and have proven track records but are facing challenges to keep pace with increasing climate risks. They are expensive to build and require continuous upgrades and repairs. While they do provide protection from many disaster risks, they also can cause significant disruption to coastal ecosystems as well as to coastal communities.

Nature-based coastal defenses include such things as mangroves and coral reefs. So-called soft measures involve restoring, rehabilitating, reforesting, and nourishing natural ecosystems that protect coastal areas.

The Tokyo researchers analyzed the defense strategies in terms of risk reduction, climate change mitigation, and cost-effectiveness over a 20-year period. The results of the study were that among all coastal defense options in lower-risk areas, hybrid measures provide the highest risk reduction and can harness the advantages of both hard and soft measures.

The findings provide strong evidence for integrating nature-based components into coastal defenses, but these approaches have not yet been adequately tested in circumstances of extreme events and high-risk urgency. Research in this area has important implications for policy makers, coastal planners, and communities looking to make evidence-based decisions.

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A natural touch for coastal defense

Photo, posted October 22, 2021, courtesy of Kevin Dooley via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Coffee, cocoa, and pollinators

November 20, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Multiple forces have been at play that have been detrimental to pollinators including climate change, land use change, pesticide use, and more. There have been substantial declines in both the abundance and diversity of insect pollinators. There is increasing public awareness of this issue, but it hasn’t really risen all that high among many people’s concerns.

A new study by University College London looked at the effects of the global decline in pollinators on thousands of crop-growing sites around the world involving thousands of insect pollinator species.

About 75% of all crops grown depend on pollinators to some degree. The UCL research created a model that looks at which pollination dependent crops are most threatened over the next 30 years in order to provide a warning to both the agricultural and conservation communities.

The research indicates that the tropics are likely to be most at risk with regard to reduced crop production caused by pollinator losses. This is mostly due to the interaction of climate change and land use. The risks are highest in sub-Saharan Africa, northern South America, and southeast Asia.

These areas are where the world gets most of its coffee and cocoa, two crops that are near and dear to most of us. These crops, as well as others such as mangoes, play vital roles in both local economies and global trade and reducing them could lead to increased income insecurity for millions of small-scale farmers in these tropical regions.

If pollinator loss isn’t high up on your list of global concerns, perhaps you should think about it next time you have a cup of coffee or enjoy some chocolate.

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Coffee and cocoa plants at risk from pollinator loss

Photo, posted May 23, 2013, courtesy of McKay Savage via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Geoengineering could create winners and losers

November 13, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Geoengineering – deliberate interventions to alter the climate and curb climate change – is a controversial topic, to say the least. Once practically considered taboo even to discuss, there in increasing interest in at least exploring various ideas about how to halt or reverse climate change through direct actions that impact global temperatures.

Putting aside the very real concerns about the risks and dangers associated with such action, there is also the issue that climate interventions may create dramatically different effects across the globe, benefitting some areas and adversely affecting others.

A recent study by scientists at Rutgers University tackled this very issue. Published in the journal Nature Food, it described the results of computer models simulating the impacts of stratospheric aerosol intervention (SAI), which is spraying sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, where it would partially shield the Earth from the Sun, lowering temperatures.

The study looked at 11 different SAI scenarios and found that none of them benefitted everyone. Uncontrolled global warming favors crop production in cold, high-latitude areas such as Canada, Russia, Scandinavia, and our northern border states. Moderate amounts of SAI favors food production in the mid-latitudes (such as in the US and Europe.) Large amounts of intervention favors agricultural production in the tropics.

Even if geoengineering might not have dire consequences – which is by no means certain – it would create winners and losers. Nations may have different ideas of what constitutes an optimal global temperature. So, who gets to decide where to set the global thermostat? The prospects for conflict loom large.

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Climate Intervention Technologies May Create Winners and Losers in World Food Supply

Photo, posted November 18, 2021, courtesy of Conall via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Chocolate And Deforestation | Earth Wise

February 14, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The world consumes 7.5 million tons of chocolate a year. Americans spend an average of $145 a year per capita on chocolate. And we are not even the world leaders. The Swiss eat an average of 22 pounds per person and the overall European chocolate market is the world’s largest.

A market valued over $100 billion a year is bound to have its issues for the environment, human rights, and other social issues, and chocolate is no exception. The global cacao industry grapples with problems with child labor, poverty, deforestation, sustainability and other environmental issues. The response of companies across the industry varies greatly. A website called chocolatescorecard.com keeps track of how many in the industry are doing.

Recently, lawmakers in the European Union have been putting together a landmark legislative package that addresses deforestation risks in the supply chains of a number of commodities including cattle, timber, rubber, soy, palm oil, and cacao. The proposed law restricts companies that import cacao and sell chocolate to import only what doesn’t destroy or degrade forests.

Voluntary promises by big chocolate makers to save forests in major cacao-producing countries (like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, and Nigeria) are difficult to keep. Farmers sell to brokers who sell to trading companies that then sell to chocolate makers. Tracing the origins of chocolate is difficult. Ultimately, fairly compensating farmers is the only way they are likely comply with deforestation regulations and there are unfortunately many pockets to fill before that is likely to happen.

It is up to consumers to encourage companies to do the right thing by making their buying choices appropriately.

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The Forest in Your Chocolate

The Chocolate Scorecard

Photo, posted January 12, 2010, courtesy of Lee McCoy via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Cloud Seeding And The Western Drought | Earth Wise

April 6, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The massive megadrought affecting the American West is now considered to be the driest two-decade period in the past 1,200 years. The lengthy drought has led to increased wildfires, reduced agricultural productivity, and reduced electricity generation by hydropower plants. The historically low water levels in the largest two reservoirs in the U.S. – Lake Mead and Lake Powell – has triggered reductions in water allocations to Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico.

Several western states have expanded cloud seeding programs in an attempt to increase precipitation. During the past two years, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and California have all stepped up their cloud seeding efforts. Outside of the US, the United Arab Emirates and China both have implemented massive cloud seeding programs.

A study by researchers at the University of Colorado and the National Center for Atmospheric Research looked at the ability of cloud seeding to increase snowfall. The study unambiguously demonstrated that cloud seeding can increase snowfall. Just how effective it is in terms of how much additional snow seeding produces is less clear.

Given the dire need for water and the fact that cloud seeding is not especially expensive, governments and other users are not hesitating to make use of it.

Unfortunately, the study shed no light on the efficacy of warm weather seeding to produce rain. There is in fact little evidence that seeding clouds to produce rain accomplishes very much. Once again, the prevailing view is that it is worth trying. There do not appear to be environmental downsides to seeding.

The hope is that cloud seeding may at least restore clouds to the state they had been in before industrial pollution and other human activities affected them.

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Can Cloud Seeding Help Quench the Thirst of the U.S. West?

Photo, posted November 21, 2013, courtesy of Sharon Tate Soberon via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Removing Carbon With The Oceans | Earth Wise

January 26, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There is increasing concern that reducing carbon emissions alone will not be sufficient to stabilize the climate and that technologies that actively remove carbon dioxide from the air will be needed. There has been a fair amount of analysis of the efficacy of storing carbon in agricultural soil and in forests, but there has not been comparable studies of the risks, benefits, and trade-offs of ocean-based strategies.

The oceans currently absorb about a quarter of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. There are multiple ways in which oceans could be induced to store much more. A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine looks at several ocean carbon dioxide removal strategies in terms of efficacy, potential costs, and potential environmental risks.

One approach involves adding nutrients to the ocean surface to increase photosynthesis by phytoplankton. The approach has a medium to high chance of being effective and has medium environmental risks.

Another approach is large-scale seaweed farming that transports carbon to the deep ocean or into sediments. It has medium efficacy chances but higher environmental risks.

Protection and restoration of coastal ecosystems including marine wildlife would have the lowest environmental risk but only low to medium efficacy.

Chemically altering ocean water to increase its alkalinity in order to enhance reactions that take up carbon dioxide would be highly effective but a medium environmental risk.

The report describes some other approaches as well. It recommends a $125 million research program to better understand the technological challenges as well as the potential economic, social, and environmental impacts of increasing the oceans’ absorption of carbon dioxide.

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Oceans Could Be Harnessed to Remove Carbon From Air, Say U.S. Science Leaders

Photo, posted August 21, 2016, courtesy of Quinn Dombrowski via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Dangerous Fire Season | Earth Wise

June 9, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The western United States is entering the fire season under much worse drought conditions than last year. Last year, 15,800 square miles burned in the U.S., mostly in the West.

The western U.S. is in the midst of a 20-year mega-drought. Rainfall in the Rocky Mountains and farther west was the second lowest on record this April. The soil in the western half of the country is the driest it has been since 1895.

The situation is particularly bad in California and the Southwest. In March, less than a third of California was experiencing extreme or exceptional drought. Now, 73% of the state is. A year ago, a record-breaking fire season burned 4% of the state and, at that time, only 3% of California was in a state of extreme drought.

A year ago, no parts of Arizona, Nevada, or Utah were in extreme or exceptional drought. Now, more than 90% of Utah, 86% of Arizona, and 75% of Nevada face severe drought conditions. At this time last year, only 4% of New Mexico faced extreme drought but 77% does now.

These extreme drought conditions, which are believed to be linked to climate change, are causing increased tree mortality among many species, ranging from junipers in the Southwest even to drought-tolerant blue oaks in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Conditions are extremely ripe for a lot of forest fire this year. Last year was a terrible year for wildfires in the West and we are heading into a fire season with much drier fuels than there were last year. The risks of great damage from wildfires are higher than ever.

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US West Enters Fire Season Facing Extremely Dry Conditions

Photo, posted September 18, 2020, courtesy of USFS/National Interagency Fire Center via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Should We Block The Sun? | Earth Wise

May 10, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There is growing concern that greenhouse gas emissions are not falling quickly enough to avoid dangerous levels of global warming. As a result, there is the impetus to examine other options. Among these are geoengineering, which is one of the most contentious issues in climate policy. Geoengineering embodies many risks that make even seriously considering it seem risky in itself.

Despite this, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine has issued a report saying that governments urgently need to know whether solar geoengineering could work and what its side effects might be.

Solar geoengineering is also called solar radiation modification, which entails reflecting more of the sun’s energy back into space. This would likely be accomplished by injecting aerosols into the atmosphere, much like what happens after large volcanic eruptions.

Schemes for solar geoengineering raise numerous issues. Although solar geoengineering might cool the earth’s surface to a global temperature target, the cooling may not be evenly distributed, affecting many ecosystem functions and biodiversity. It would likely upset regional weather patterns in potentially devastating ways, for example by changing the behavior of the monsoon in South Asia. It might dangerously relax public commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions.

Despite these concerns, or perhaps because of them, the committee that produced the report believes that technology to reflect sunlight deserves substantial funding and should be researched as rapidly and effectively as possible. Once any geoengineering projects get into the hands of policymakers, they may gather momentum that bypasses the advice of scientists. So, it important to make progress on the science while geoengineering is still only theoretical.

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Should We Block the Sun? Scientists Say the Time Has Come to Study It.

To intervene or not to intervene? That is the future climate question

Photo, posted August 3, 2018, courtesy of Tomasz Baranowski via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Europe Is Warming Faster Than Predicted

October 9, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A new study has found that Europe is warming faster than even climate models projected. The number of summer days with extreme heat in Europe has tripled since the 1950s, while the number of days with extreme cold has decreased by factors of two or three depending on the region.

According to climate scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the climate trends are much larger than what would come from natural variability and are a clear signal of climate change. Extremely hot days in Europe have become hotter by an average of more than 4 degrees Fahrenheit while extremely cold days have warmed by more than 5 degrees. The research examined data from weather stations across Europe from 1950 to 2018. Over 90% of the stations recorded increasing temperatures over time, a percentage much too high to be purely from natural climate variability. The results also showed that the region was warming even faster than climate models projected.

The research results come after an extremely hot summer in Europe. Southern France hit 114.8 degrees, a new record, in June. Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium all recorded all-time national temperature highs. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently announced that July was the hottest month ever recorded.

European summers and winters will only grow hotter in the coming years as climate change accelerates. The rapidly increasing temperatures will impact cities and people that are unprepared for them and pose real risks for residents in the coming decades. Extreme heat is dangerous because it stresses the human body, potentially leading to heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

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Europe warming faster than expected due to climate change

Photo, posted July 30, 2011, courtesy of Marcel de Jong via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Solar-Powered Desalination

October 4, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Turning seawater into drinking water is an energy-intensive process and is therefore pretty expensive. Worldwide, one third of people don’t have reliable access to safe drinking water and they are the least able to afford expensive ways to get it. By 2025, half of the world’s population is expected to live in water-stressed areas.

At a newly-constructed facility in Kenya, a nonprofit company called GivePower has built a desalination system that runs on solar power. The system started operating in the coastal area of Kiunga in July 2018 and can create nearly 20,000 gallons of fresh drinking water each day – enough for 25,000 people.

GivePower started in 2013 as a nonprofit branch of SolarCity, the solar-panel company that ultimately merged with Tesla in 2016. However, GivePower spun off as a separate enterprise shortly before that.

GivePower mostly focuses on building solar-energy systems to provide electricity across the developing world.

Desalination technology is not new, but it is notoriously energy-intensive because it requires high-power pumps. The GivePower system is integrated with a solar microgrid that makes use of Tesla batteries to store energy for when the sun is not shining.

Local residents pay about a quarter of one cent for every quart of water from the system. The Kiunga community has faced ongoing drought and before the GivePower system was installed, was forced to drink from salt water wells, which present serious health risks.

The GivePower system cost $500,000 to build and is expected to generate $100,000 a year, to be eventually used to fund similar facilities in other places.

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A solar-powered system can turn salt water into fresh drinking water for 25,000 people per day. It could help address the world’s looming water crisis.

Photo courtesy of GivePower.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Climate Change And The Bottom Line

July 31, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Large companies around the world are facing up to the fact that climate change could substantially affect their bottom lines within the next five years. Shareholders and regulators have been applying pressure to companies to disclose the specific financial impacts they could face as the planet warms and companies are increasingly making those disclosures.

A non-profit charity called CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project) runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states, and regions to manage their environmental impacts. In 2018, more than 7,000 companies submitted reports to CDP and, for the first time, CDP explicitly asked firms to try to calculate how a warming planet might affect them financially.

Analysis of the reports from 215 of the world’s 500 largest corporations revealed that these companies alone potentially faced roughly $1 trillion in costs related to climate change in the decades ahead unless they took proactive steps to prepare.

Climate-related risks range from extreme weather that could disrupt supply chains to stricter climate regulations that could hurt the value of coal, oil, and gas investments. Technology companies like Google’s parent company, Alphabet, Inc., face increased costs to cool energy-hungry data centers as temperatures rise.

In all, the world’s largest companies estimated that at least $250 billion of assets may need to be written off or retired early as the planet heats up. Previous studies, based on computer climate modeling, have estimated that the risks of global warming, if left unmanaged, could cost the world’s financial sector between $1.7 trillion to $24.2 trillion in net present value terms.

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Companies See Climate Change Hitting Their Bottom Lines in the Next 5 Years

Photo, posted February 29, 2016, courtesy of Ben Nuttall via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Making Coal To Fight Climate Change

April 19, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Coal is the most harmful fossil fuel for the environment and, furthermore, for human health. Its use has stubbornly persisted because it is so plentiful and, therefore, cheap. As a result, a big part of efforts to fight climate change is finding a way to remove the carbon dioxide dumped into the atmosphere by the combustion of coal.

Researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia have developed a remarkable technology that in effect reverses the process that has led to soaring CO2 levels in the atmosphere. They have found a way to pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turn it into coal, after which it can be stored cheaply and safely underground.

Most previous carbon capture and storage technologies have focused on compressing carbon dioxide gas into a liquid form and then pumping it into rock formations. Such techniques are rather expensive, require lots of energy, and pose risks that the liquid CO2 could escape from its underground storage sites. More recently, research on solid metal catalysts has led to the possibility of turning CO2 into solid carbon, but most of these reactions require very high temperatures and use a lot of energy.

The new technique developed at RMIT uses a new class of catalysts based on metal alloys. With a small jolt of electricity applied at room temperature, CO2 can be converted into solid carbon – basically, coal.

If this technique can be industrialized economically, it would be like turning back the clock by taking carbon dioxide that entered the atmosphere by the combustion of coal and turning it back into coal and putting it back underground. It seems like excellent environmental justice.

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