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Bees and urban wildflowers

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Post-industrial cities often have large numbers of vacant lots, left behind as people have moved out of the area.  Local residents are often tempted to plant wildflowers to make these deserted spaces more attractive. 

Wildflowers are an important food source for bees.  Pollinators like bees play a vital role in food production and attracting them with food sources is a good idea.  However, a study by researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK found that there are dangers associated with planting wildflowers in some urban settings.

Wildflowers growing on land previously used for buildings and factories can accumulate lead, arsenic, and other metal contaminants from the soil.  These metals have previously been shown to damage the health of pollinators that ingest the metals in the nectar as they feed.

The Cambridge study was carried out in Cleveland, Ohio, which has nearly 34,000 vacant lots.  Cleveland was previously the site of iron and steel production, oil refining, and car manufacturing.  The researchers tested the nectar from flowering plants growing on disused land throughout the city.  Lead was the contaminant found in the highest concentrations.  They also found that different species of plants accumulate different amounts and different types of metals.

The goal of the study was not to discourage the planting of wildflowers in towns and cities.  It is to highlight the importance of growing the right species of wildflowers as well as to encourage testing soils for metals before planting wildflowers and to clean up pollution.  Wildflowers are important for pollinators, but it is also important that they don’t contribute to the decline of pollinator populations that has already been happening for a number of reasons.

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Growing wildflowers on disused urban land can damage bee health

Photo, posted August 26, 2012, courtesy of RJP via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Thermal batteries for heavy industry

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Heavy industries like cement, steel, chemicals, and paper require large amounts of heat and, for the most part, that heat comes from burning fossil fuels.  Other sectors of the economy have been making progress in reducing carbon emissions, but heavy industry has not found easy answers for supplying the heat it needs for manufacturing.

Researchers at MIT have developed a way to supply heat that only uses electricity, which in principle can come from carbon-free sources.  The idea is to use thermal batteries.  These are basically an electrically conductive equivalent of ceramic firebricks, which have been used to store heat for centuries in fireplaces and ovens.

A spinout company called Electrified Thermal Solutions has demonstrated that its firebricks can store heat efficiently for hours and release it by heating air or gas up to 3,272 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The firebrick arrays are contained in insulated, off-the-shelf metal boxes.  The standard system can collect and release about 5 megawatts of energy and store about 25 megawatt-hours.  The thermal battery can run hotter and last longer than any other electric heating solution on the market.

Using this technology can be a way to take advantage of the low cost of electricity in off-peak hours.  In the so-called wind belt in the middle of the U.S., electricity prices can even be negative at times.  Using the firebrick technology – called the Joule Hive Thermal Battery – it can be possible to provide industrial heating capability at very competitive prices, and that doesn’t even factor in the positive climate impact.

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Decarbonizing heavy industry with thermal batteries

Photo, posted April 19, 2019, courtesy of Hans M. via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Capturing hot carbon dioxide

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Decarbonizing industries like steel and cement is a difficult challenge.  Both involve emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide both from burning fossil fuels and from intrinsic chemical reactions taking place.  A potential solution is to capture the carbon dioxide emissions and either use them or store them away.  But this sort of carbon capture is not easy and can be quite expensive.

The most common method for capturing carbon dioxide emissions from industrial plants uses chemicals called liquid amines which absorb the gas.  But the chemical reaction by which this occurs only works well at temperatures between 100 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cement manufacturing and steelmaking plants produce exhaust that exceeds 400 degrees and other industrial processes produce exhaust as hot as 930 degrees.

Costly infrastructure is necessary to cool down these exhaust streams so that amine-based carbon capture technology can work. 

Chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a porous material – a type of metal-organic framework – that can act like a sponge to capture CO2 at temperatures close to those of many industrial exhaust streams.  The molecular metal hydride structures have demonstrated rapid, reversible, high-capacity capture of carbon dioxide that can be accomplished at high temperatures.

Removing carbon dioxide from industrial and power plant emissions is a key strategy for reducing greenhouse gases that are warming the Earth and altering the global climate.  The captured CO2 can be used to produce value-added chemicals or can be stored underground or chemically-reacted into stable substances.

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Breakthrough in capturing ‘hot’ CO2 from industrial exhaust

Photo, posted March 3, 2010, courtesy of Eli Duke via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Less coal for making steel

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Steel is primarily produced using one of two methods:  blast furnaces or electric arc furnaces.  The first blast furnaces were built in the 14th century.  Making steel in a blast furnace starts by melting the raw materials of iron ore, limestone, and coal at very high temperatures.  The resultant reactions ultimately lead to two products:  iron saturated with carbon and carbon dioxide.  A second furnace reacts the liquid iron with oxygen to remove the carbon and results in steel along with even more carbon dioxide.

Making steel using an electric arc furnace is considerably less emissions-intensive and more sustainable.  So-called circular steel making powered by electric arc furnaces uses electricity to melt scrap and other input materials and turn them into high-quality steel.  Of course, to really minimize the emissions associated with steelmaking, the arc furnaces need to get their power from renewable energy sources. 

The global steel industry is turning away from polluting coal-fired blast furnaces and towards electric arc furnaces, which now account for roughly half of all planned new steelmaking capacity. This represents real progress towards a green steel transition.

By the end of this decade, electric arc furnaces will account for more than a third of steelmaking.  However, there are still plenty of new coal-based steel furnaces being built.  So even as electric arc furnaces account for a greater share of steelmaking, these new coal furnaces will still drive emissions upward.   Environmental advocates argue that what the steel industry needs is to make clean development a true priority and back away from coal-based developments.

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Steelmakers Increasingly Forgoing Coal, Building Electric

Photo, posted July 16, 2018, courtesy of Daniel Steelman via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Recycling cement

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Concrete is the second-most-used material on the planet.  Only water is used more.  Producing concrete is responsible for 7.5% of human-produced carbon dioxide emissions.  So, finding a cost-effective way to reduce these emissions is a major challenge in the face of ever-growing global demand for concrete.

Researchers at Cambridge University have found that used cement is an effective substitute for lime flux, which is an essential material used in steel recycling that results in a waste product called slag.  When lime is replaced with used cement, the end product instead is recycled cement that can be used to make new concrete.

The process does not add any significant costs to concrete or steel production and significantly reduces the emissions associated with both.

Concrete is made from sand, gravel, water, and cement.  Cement is made by a process called clinkering, in which limestone and other materials are heated to 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit.  The process converts the materials into cement but releases large amounts of CO2 as limestone decarbonates into lime. 

Cambridge researchers found that using cement clinker and iron oxide instead of lime works well in steel recycling.  Crushing old concrete and taking out the sand and stone results in a cement that is reactivated by the recycling furnace to produce a material with excellent properties. 

Recent tests by the Materials Processing Institute showed that recycled cement can be produced at scale in an electric arc furnace.  Ultimately, this method could produce zero emission cement if the electricity for the furnace comes from renewable sources.

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Cement recycling method could help solve one of the world’s biggest climate challenges

Photo, posted July 18, 2011, courtesy of Kenta Mabuchi via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Progress on offshore wind in New York

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New York has now conditionally awarded two offshore wind projects that will move towards operation in 2026.  The projects, totaling more than 1,700 megawatts of power, will be the largest power generation projects in New York state in more than 35 years.  It is an important milestone toward achieving the state’s goal of developing 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035.

Empire Wind I, located 15 miles southeast of Long Island, and Sunrise Wind, located more than 30 miles east of the eastern point of Long Island, have already completed most federal and state permitting requirements.  Empire Wind I received final approval of their Construction and Operation Plan from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in late February.

Both projects are expected to ramp up construction activity this year.  Previous awards by NYSERDA for the projects in 2019 included contract provisions for specific economic benefits to New York communities and commitments for purchasing iron and steel from American sources.   Empire Wind I is being developed by Equinor, an international energy company headquartered in Norway.  Sunrise Wind, originally a joint project by Ørsted and Eversource, is now solely being developed by Ørsted, a global energy company based in Denmark.

Following successful execution of the contracts for the two projects, NYSERDA payments under these awards will only begin once the projects have obtained all required permits and approvals, the construction has been completed, and the projects begin delivering clean energy to New York.

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New York selects Empire Wind I and Sunrise Wind offshore projects

Photo, posted June 14, 2022, courtesy of Lissa Eng / BOEM via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Red mud and steel

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Most of us have never heard of red mud.  Otherwise known as bauxite residue, it is an industrial waste product generated by the most common process by which aluminum is made and the world produces 200 million tons of red mud each year.  The stuff is a significant environmental hazard being extremely alkaline and corrosive. Most of it ends up in large landfills and the costs associated with disposing of red mud are substantial.

Red mud is red because it contains large amounts of iron oxide, often as much as 60% of it.  Scientists at the Max-Planck Institute in Germany have developed a method for producing steel from red mud that is much less carbon intensive than traditional steel production and that is economically viable.

The scientists melt the red mud in an electric furnace powered in part by green hydrogen.  Running the furnace this way, even when using electricity from only partially renewable sources, results in far fewer greenhouse gas emissions as well as economic benefits.  In the furnace, liquid iron separates from the other liquid oxides and can be extracted easily.  The resultant iron is so pure that it can processed directly into steel.  The remaining metal oxides are no longer corrosive, and they solidify into a glass-like material that can have practical uses in construction.

There are 4 billion tons of red mud that have accumulated worldwide to date.  According to the researchers, their process could produce over 700 million tons of green steel from it, potentially saving 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions. 

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Green steel from toxic red mud

Photo, posted September 7, 2021, courtesy of Healthy Gulf via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

New York’s first offshore wind farm

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New York has set a target of installing 9 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2035.  The first offshore wind farm in the state – South Fork Wind – was approved by the Long Island Power Authority in 2017.  Construction began in 2022.

South Fork Wind Farm is a 132 MW project sited 35 miles offshore from Montauk, New York.  Early this year, the subsea power export cable was installed by Nexans, a cable and optical fiber company.  In June, the project reached its “steel in the water” milestone with the installation of the farm’s first monopile foundation.

In November, the first of South Fork Wind’s 12 Siemens Gamesa wind turbine generators was hoisted into place by the offshore construction team.  The turbines are being installed by a specialized vessel called the Aeolus.  Turbine installation involves using a crane to place the steel turbine tower onto the foundation.  The nacelle and rotor are then installed on top of the tower.  Finally, the blades are bolted one by one to the rotor.

All 12 turbines for the project are expected to be installed by the end of this year or by early 2024.

There have been setbacks for the U.S. offshore wind industry in recent times.  Two projects in New Jersey have been scrapped because of supply chain issues.   Rhode Island Energy pulled out of a project citing higher interest rates, increased expenses, and problems with tax credits.

But despite these setbacks, the industry continues to make headway.  Vineyard Wind in Massachusetts is on the precipice of delivering its first power to the grid and the pipeline of additional projects continues to grow.

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First turbine installed at South Fork Wind, New York’s first offshore wind farm

Photo, posted August 7, 2013, courtesy of SSE / Department of Energy and Climate Change via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Pollution From Tires | Earth Wise

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A few years ago, researchers investigating massive deaths of coho salmon in West Coast streams discovered that the water contained particles from vehicle tires.  The cause of the fish mortality turned out to be a chemical called 6PPD that is added to tires to prevent cracking and degradation.  The mystery was solved, but so far, the chemical continues to be used by all major tire manufacturers and is found on roads and in waterways around the world.

Worse still, the acute toxicity of 6PPD and the chemicals that it transforms into when exposed to ground-level ozone is only the tip of the tire pollution iceberg.  Tire rubber contains more than 400 chemicals and compounds, many of which are carcinogenic. 

About 2 billion tires are sold across the globe each year and that number is expected to reach 3.4 billion by 2030.  Tires are made from about 20% natural rubber and 24% synthetic rubber, which requires about 4 gallons of petroleum per tire.  Hundreds of other ingredients – including steel, fillers, heavy metals like copper, cadmium, lead, and zinc – make up the rest.

Tire wear particles are emitted continually as vehicles travel.  They range in size from visible pieces of rubber or plastic to microparticles.  Research has shown that a car’s four tires collectively emit half a trillion ultrafine particles per mile driven.  These particles are small enough to be breathed into the lungs and can travel throughout the body and even cross the blood-brain barrier.  Particle pollution from tires exceeds that from tailpipes.

Tire pollution is a huge problem that is just starting to receive the attention it deserves.

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Road Hazard: Evidence Mounts on Toxic Pollution from Tires

Photo, posted June 22, 2018, courtesy of Tony Webster via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Electric Steel Furnaces | Earth Wise

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Steel was first made thousands of years ago.  The discovery that heating up iron ore in a hot enough charcoal fire could purify the iron into a strong and valuable material was the start of the Iron Age.  In many ways, things have changed very little since then.

Global iron and steel production accounts for 7% of society’s carbon emissions. Making steel generally involves burning coal in a blast furnace to produce the very high temperatures required to turn iron into steel.  The coal is used both as a feedstock and as a fuel.  Steel is made from iron and a substance called coke, which is basically coal that has been carbonized at high temperatures.  Coal itself is burned to provide the high temperatures needed.

A new analysis from the Global Energy Monitor think tank shows that the global steel industry is slowly embracing electric-arc furnaces to produce the necessary heat, which is a cleaner alternative.  The analysis found that 43% of forthcoming steelmaking capacity will rely on electric-arc furnaces, up from 33% last year.

According to the study, the shift to cleaner steel is not happening fast enough.  To meet the emissions reductions goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, electric-arc furnaces must account for 53% of global steelmaking capacity by 2050.  Based on the current plans, those furnaces would only account for 32% of total capacity by that year.

In order to meet these goals, the steel industry will need to retire or cancel about 381 million tons of coal-based manufacturing capacity and add 670 million tons of electric-arc furnace capacity. 

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Steel Industry Pivoting to Electric Furnaces, Analysis Shows

Photo, posted March 3, 2012, courtesy of Jeronimo Nisa via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Cleaner And Greener Steel | Earth Wise

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Producing construction materials like concrete and steel is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.  Between 7 and 8% of emissions are due to steelmaking alone, which has been done pretty much the same way for more than a century.

Iron ore is smelted with high-carbon fuel and is turned into so-called pig iron in a blast furnace, which creates the key raw material for the steel industry.  The process uses huge amounts of energy (still often generated by burning fossil fuels) and releases carbon dioxide as a byproduct. 

The Department of Energy is sponsoring 40 projects at universities, national laboratories and companies in 21 states aimed at reducing industrial carbon pollution.  Ten of those projects are focused on decarbonizing iron and steel. These initiatives are part of the overall effort to move the nation towards a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

A team headed by Case Western Reserve University that includes Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the University of Arizona, and steel company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has developed a promising new zero-carbon, electrochemical process for producing steel.

The process is a novel molten salt electrolysis method that is low-cost, capable of achieving high rates, and uses environmentally benign chemicals.  The process does not use carbon at all.  Using molten salts, electrochemistry can be performed at moderately high temperatures rather than the temperatures of nearly 3000 degrees Fahrenheit used for conventional steelmaking.  The goal is to enable steel production that is both economically viable at an industrial scale and that is environmentally sustainable.

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Case Western Reserve leading research to develop zero-carbon, electrochemical process to produce iron metal as part of U.S. Department of Energy effort

Photo, posted January 11, 2017, courtesy of Kevin Casey Fleming via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

New York Is Sinking | Earth Wise

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The rising seas represent a threat to coastal cities across the globe.  Increasing that threat is the fact that most global cities are slowly sinking as the earth beneath them settles and groundwater is removed.   Another factor that has seldom been considered is that in major metropolises, the weight of large, concrete-and-steel skyscrapers may be hastening the sinking.

A new study by the U.S. Geological Survey published in the journal Earth’s Future estimated the weight of every building in New York City – 1.085 million of them – which they determined to add up to 1.68 trillion pounds – and estimated the downward force of those structures across the city.

The study found that buildings have a greater effect in areas that are rich in clay compared with those areas where sand or bedrock predominate.  The softer the soil, the more compression there is from buildings.  It wasn’t a mistake to build large buildings in New York, but it is important to understand that doing so pushes down the ground more and more.

The study determined that New York is sinking by around 1 to 2 millimeters each year, although some areas are sinking much faster.  The researchers say that cities must plan for future sinking, which will exacerbate the impact of rising seas. Sea levels are rising 1 to 2 millimeter each year, so the subsidence caused by the weight of buildings is equivalent to moving a year ahead in time with regard to rising ocean levels.  This is not a cause for immediate panic, but it is important to understand that this ongoing process only increases the risk of inundation from flooding.

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New York City Sinking Under Weight of Skyscrapers

Photo, posted January 29, 2016, courtesy of Always Shooting via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Offshore Wind Industry In New York | Earth Wise

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Last July, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the release of the state’s third competitive offshore wind solicitation, seeking to add generating capacity to power at least 1.5 million homes.  In response to the solicitation, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority – NYSERDA -received more than 100 proposals for 8 new projects from six offshore wind developers.  An evaluation period is in progress and NYSERDA expects to announce awards sometime this spring.

Apart from the development and installation of offshore wind turbines and their associated infrastructure, participating in the program also involves supply chain investments to support the development of a strong, local supply chain that creates jobs for New Yorkers as well as bolstering the state’s standing as a regional hub for offshore wind manufacturing.

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, a multi-billion-dollar Spanish-German wind engineering company, is one of the companies bidding to have its wind turbines used for the forthcoming New York offshore wind projects.   If Siemens Gamesa is selected for the project, the company has revealed that it will build a major offshore nacelle manufacturing facility at the Port of Coeymans, New York, some 15 miles from Albany.

The planned facility would create approximately 420 direct jobs and represent an investment of around $500 million in the region.  Siemens Gamesa said it would also commit to localizing several new component supplier facilities, including steel component fabrication, bearings, and composite components. 

Offshore wind will bring more than just electricity to New York; it will bring a whole new industry.

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Siemens Gamesa reveals plans for New York offshore wind hub

Photo, posted March 24, 2016, courtesy of TEIA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Cheaper Carbon Capture | Earth Wise

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As the years roll by without sufficient progress in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the need for technologies that can capture CO2 from its sources or remove it from the air becomes stronger and stronger.  People have developed various ways to capture carbon dioxide, but to date, they generally suffer from some combination of being too costly or not being able to scale up to the necessary magnitude.

Scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington recently announced the creation of a new system that they claim is the least costly to date that captures carbon dioxide and turns it into a widely-used chemical: methanol.

Technologies that simply capture carbon dioxide that then needs to be stored in some secure location are difficult to implement from a cost perspective.  The PNNL researchers believe that turning CO2 into methanol can provide the financial incentive for widespread implementation.   Methanol can be used as a fuel, a solvent, or an important ingredient in plastics, paint, construction materials, and car parts.

The system is designed to be installed in fossil fuel-fired power plants as well as cement and steel plants.  Using a capture solvent developed by PNNL, the system grabs carbon dioxide molecules before they are emitted and converts them into methanol. Creating methanol from CO2 is nothing new, but capturing the carbon dioxide and converting into methanol in one continuously flowing system is new.

More work is needed to optimize and scale the process and it may be several years before it is ready for commercial deployment.

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Scientists Unveil Least Costly Carbon Capture System to Date

Photo, posted November 25, 2022, courtesy of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Conservation via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Enormous Cost Of Steel Corrosion | Earth Wise

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Global steel production has been rising for decades.  Because steel corrodes over time, part of the demand for more steel comes from the need to replace the steel used in construction materials – in everything from bridges to cars – that has become corroded over time.  Studies have estimated that the economic cost of corrosion is an astonishing 3 to 4% of a nation’s gross domestic product.  Globally, this means that steel corrosion costs the world trillions – yes, trillions with a T – of dollars each year.

On top of the staggering economic impact of corrosion, there is the fact that steel production is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters of any industry, accounting for more than 25% of all manufacturing sector carbon emissions.  In fact, steel manufacturing causes over 10% of total global carbon emissions.  

As a result of regulations placed on the steel industry, technological advances in the steelmaking process have resulted in a 61% reduction in the industry’s energy consumption over the last 50 years.   There are continuing efforts to reduce the energy consumption of steel making and to move away from the use of fossil fuels to produce the needed energy.  But without significant improvements, just the emissions associated with replacing corroded steel could make the goals set by the Paris Climate Agreement unfeasible.

It’s hard to believe that something costing the world trillions of dollars and has a major negative impact on the climate is largely invisible.  Steel corrosion is an enormous societal challenge that has gone under the  radar for decades and therefore has not received anything like the attention it deserves.

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Reducing steel corrosion vital to combating climate change

Photo, posted July 24, 2008, courtesy of Phil Whitehouse via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Green Steel | Earth Wise

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The Inflation Reduction Act provides $369 billion in investments to ramp up renewable energy generation and manufacturing of solar panels, wind turbines, energy storage, and electric vehicles. 

Every megawatt of solar power deployed requires 35 to 45 tons of steel.  Every megawatt of wind power uses 120 to 180 tons of steel.   Estimates are that it will take 1.7 billion tons of steel just to build all the wind turbines needed to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

This is a big problem because steel production accounts for roughly 10% of global carbon emissions and is one of the most carbon-intensive industries in the world.

Making steel is a complex and age-old process that hasn’t changed much over time.  Green steel is steel made with little or no carbon emissions.  There are a few ways to do it.  One is called the direct reduced iron method that uses green hydrogen instead of fossil fuel gas to produce iron and then a renewable-powered electric arc furnace to make the steel. 

Molten Oxide Electrolysis is an alternative green steel approach that doesn’t depend on having a green hydrogen infrastructure.  It uses electrolysis, powered by renewable energy, to separate the bonds of iron ore and produce liquid metal while releasing only oxygen in the process.

Green steel solutions rely on the availability of renewable energy, but the ultimate success of renewable energy will depend on the success of green steel.  The U.S. steel industry will leverage about $6 billion under the Inflation Reduction Act to make progress on it.

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Building tomorrow’s clean energy systems on green steel

Photo, posted October 30, 2008, courtesy of Paul Bica via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Timber Cities | Earth Wise

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More than half of the world’s population lives in cities and by 2100, this percentage is predicted to be much higher.  This means that more homes will be built with steel and concrete, which both have very large carbon footprints.  According to a study by the Potsdam Institute in Germany, housing a growing population in homes made of wood instead could avoid more than 100 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the remainder of the century.  This is about 10% of the remaining global carbon budget for staying below the 2-degree Celsius climate target.

The study presents the alternative of housing new urban populations in mid-rise buildings – no more than 4-12 stories high – that are substantially made of wood.  Wood is a renewable resource that carries the lowest carbon footprint of any comparable building material.  Trees take up CO2 from the atmosphere to grow.  Producing engineered wood releases far less CO2 than production of concrete and steel and the finished product continues to store carbon.

The study shows that sufficient wood for new mid-rise urban buildings can be produced without a major impact on food production.  The wood would come from timber plantations as well as natural forests.  The study also looked at biodiversity impacts and ways that ecosystems could be protected while still providing the necessary timber.

Overall, the Potsdam study demonstrates that urban homes made out of wood could play a vital role in climate change mitigation based on their long-term carbon storage potential coupled with the reduced utilization of the carbon-intensive concrete and steel industries.

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Living in timber cities could avoid emissions – without using farmland for wood production

Photo, posted May 24, 2005, courtesy of Stig Anderson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Carbon Capture: Solution Or Band-Aid? | Earth Wise

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The idea of capturing the CO2 emissions from industry and locking them up is nothing new.  It’s been going on for decades in some places.  Norway’s state-owned oil company Equinor has been holing away a million tons of CO2 a year for a long time.  But overall, CCS – carbon capture and storage – has had very limited use.  As of last year, there were only about 30 large-scale projects in operation around the world, capturing only 0.1% of global emissions.

There is now growing interest in CCS and many new projects are underway.  A combination of rising carbon prices in Europe, tax breaks for CCS in the US, national net-zero targets, and the increasing need to ramp down global emissions are all driving rising CCS activities. 

While recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change still claim that it is possible to remain below 2 degrees Celsius of warming without using carbon capture, there is growing belief that it may be necessary given the present pace of the transition away from fossil fuels.

Two industries that together produce about 14% of global CO2 emissions are cement and steel.  These are both industries for which it is difficult to eliminate emissions regardless of the energy sources used. CCS may be the best approach to reducing their emissions.

But there is considerable pushback against CCS.  The concern is that CCS is primarily a way to delay decarbonization.  It encourages various industries to continue to use fossil fuels instead of shifting away from them.  Nonetheless, CCS no doubt has its place as part of the solution to climate change.

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Solution or Band-Aid? Carbon Capture Projects Are Moving Ahead

Photo, posted June 5, 2022, courtesy of Mark Dixon via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Carbon Dioxide Levels Higher Again | Earth Wise

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that carbon dioxide levels measured in May at the Mauna Loa Observatory reached a value of 421 parts per million.  This is 50% greater than pre-industrial levels and is in a range not seen on earth for millions of years.

Before the Industrial Revolution, CO2 levels fairly steadily measured around 280 parts per million, pretty much for all 6,000 years of human civilization.  Since the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century, humans have generated an estimated 1.5 trillion tons of CO2 pollution, much of which will continue to warm the atmosphere for thousands of years.

The present levels of carbon dioxide are comparable to those of an era known as the Pliocene Climatic Optimum, which took place over 4 million years ago. 

The bulk of the human-generated carbon dioxide comes from burning fossil fuels for transportation and electrical generation, from cement and steel manufacturing, and from the depletion of natural carbon sinks caused by deforestation, agriculture, and other human impacts on the natural environment.

Humans are altering the climate in ways that are dramatically affecting the economy, infrastructure, and ecosystems across the planet.  By trapping heat that would otherwise escape into space, greenhouse gases are causing the atmosphere to warm steadily, leading to increasingly erratic weather episodes ranging from extreme heat, droughts, and wildfires, to heavier precipitation, flooding, and tropical storm activity.

The relentless increase of carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa is a sober reminder that we need to take serious steps to try to mitigate the effects of climate change.

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Carbon dioxide now more than 50% higher than pre-industrial levels

Photo, posted December 20, 2016, courtesy of Kevin Casey Fleming via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Floating Homes In The Netherlands | Earth Wise

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The Netherlands is a country that is largely built on reclaimed land and a third of it remains below sea level.  The Dutch have long experience with dealing with rising waters.  The city of Amsterdam has almost 3,000 houseboats in its canals.

As sea levels continue to rise across the globe, it is no surprise that the Dutch have taken the lead in creating communities composed of floating houses and buildings.

A floating house is a structure fixed to the shore, often resting on steel poles, and usually connected to the local sewer system and power grid.  They are much like ordinary houses except that instead of a basement, they have a concrete hull that acts as a counterweight, allowing them to remain stable in the water.

The ones in the Netherlands are often prefabricated, square-shaped, three-story townhouses.  Rotterdam, which is 90% below sea level, is home to the world’s largest floating office building as well as a floating farm.

Floating buildings have their challenges, not the least of which are the effects of severe wind and rainstorms, or even the passing of large ships which can make the buildings rock.  Infrastructure like electricity and sewer service is not that simple to implement for the buildings.  But the benefits of floating buildings may outweigh the costs.

For cities facing worsening floods and a shortage of buildable land, floating homes are a potential solution for expanding urban housing in the age of climate change.  Dutch engineers are spearheading floating building projects in Britain, France, and Norway, as well as in threatened island locations like French Polynesia and the Maldives.

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Embracing a Wetter Future, the Dutch Turn to Floating Homes

Photo, posted May 23, 2007, courtesy of Jeff Hutchison 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...)