Category: Earth & climate

Photo of the week: the Sexy Plant

Each of us is carrying residues of pesticides in his or her body. More and more studies link immune system defficiencies, allergies and cancers with the chemicals which enter the human body via crops from non-organic agriculture. Students from the university of Valencia have now come up with an alternative, environmentally-friendly insect pest control method: the Sexy Plant.

Using controlled release of moth sex pheromones, the Sexy Plant causes mating disruption and avoid moth’s offspring. The team designed a genetic switch to turn on the release of pheromones after a solution of a copper-sulfate is sprayed on the plant. They also developed a biosafety module that prevents the plant to spread its genetic matter via pollen, which could eventually lead to an uncontrolled spread of the Sexy Plant itself which would endanger the original crop.

Two developers from the Sexy Plant team presenting their environmentally-friendly insect pest control method (photo: Sexy Plant)

Two developers from the Sexy Plant team presenting their environmentally-friendly insect pest control method (photo: Sexy Plant)

The Sexy Plant team claims that farmers can save up to 40% in insect pest control costs by planting the Sexy Plant between their crops. Plus, the pesticide free product can be sold for a better price. There is also a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, since pesticides have a carbon dioxide footprint of around 3kg per hectare which is avoided when using the Sexy Plant.

Sources

Sexy Plant project page

More

Photo of the week: Rabbit gut microbes to clean up steel production?

If ArcellorMittal's pilot project to turn CO into bio-ethanol turns out economiccaly viable, it will apply the technology in all its steel production plants, such as this one in Bremen (photo: JesterRaiin)

Steel is still the most important engineering material, with a yearly production of around 1,7 billion tonnes. Unfortunately, the process to produce steel starting from iron ore is heavily polluting the atmosphere. Both CO and CO2 are produced, with the first one often burned to produce CO2 as well. When you do the math, you find that for each ton of steel, roughly two tonnes of carbon dioxide are emitted. The contribution of the steel industry to the global CO2 emissions is estimated to be around 5%.

Reason enough to investigate the possibilty of reducing the footprint, thought bioengineering company LanzaTech. They developed the Clostridium microbe based on rabbit gut microbes, to capture carbon monoxide and converting it to ethanol.  “What we are talking about is turning an environmental liability into a financial opportunity,” said Jennifer Holmgren, chief executive of LanzaTech. The ethanol can be used to fuel cars and airplanes. ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel producer, is about to start a pilot project in their production faciliy in Ghent, Belgium to test out the technology. When completed in 2018, the facility will produce up to 47 000 tonnes of ethanol. It’s estimated that for every ton of ethanol, carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by 2.3 tonnes. When the conversion process proves to be economiccaly viable, the company will roll out the technology in all her facilities over the world.

If ArcellorMittal's pilot project to turn CO into bio-ethanol turns out economiccaly viable, it will apply the technology in all its steel production plants, such as this one in Bremen (photo: JesterRaiin)

If ArcelorMittal’s pilot project to turn CO into bio-ethanol turns out to be economically viable, the company will apply the technology in all its steel production plants, such as this one in Bremen (photo: JesterRaiin)

Sources
LanzaTech
TheGuardian
MIT

More

The climate debate is gaining momentum – update

Obama and Merkel in discussion during the G7 top at Elmau castle in Germany (photo: REUTERS/Michael Kappeler/Pool)

Four months ago I wrote about how the climate movement finally seemed to have stirred broader action at political levels (if you didn’t read it or want to fresh it up, read this first). With another four months to go until the climate summit in Paris, it becomes clear it was not just a lonely sparkle. It was the beginning of a fire.

(more…)

More

Photo of the week: tracing back shipping lanes… with CO2!

When you were asked to point the places with most carbon dioxide in the atmosphere on earth, you probably would think of China, Western Europe and the US coastlines. A mapping of carbon dioxide pollution matches very well with population density indeed. That’s not a big surprise, since mankind is a very large contributor to CO2 emissions. But something you maybe wouldn’t have tought about, is the shipping lanes used by hundreds of cargo ships carrying goods from oil over coal to bananas from one side of the globe to the other. This enormous ships burn what is called bunker oil, a sulfur rich fuel oil. At least 4% of the global greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to be emitted by shipping. Since the amount of goods shipped oversea is still on the rise, it’s definitely worth spending some more time and money improving ships’ efficiency and pollution.

 

A mapping of the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere reveals cargo ships' routes (map: Kennedy Elliott)

A mapping of the carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere reveals cargo ships’ routes (map: Kennedy Elliott)

Source

WashingtonPost
Wikipedia

More

The climate debate is gaining momentum

Obama during his visit at the Energy Department, where he announced his plans to cut government emissions (photo: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Back in September 2014, many were skeptical about the People’s Climate March in New York. Could a mass demonstration really change the tone in climate policy when it has been stuck in never ending discussions for the last twenty-five years? The 311 000 protesters from over the whole world believed they could indeed.

We don’t know if the march had an hand in it, but we do know a lot started to change in the fall of 2014. The climate debate was steadily gaining momentum and impact. We saw a historical pledge of the US and China to reduce their emissions. For the first time we got an agreement with all countries present on the COP in Lima. The EU announced its new emissions reduction goals for 2030.

The new year had not long taken its start before we saw another big event in the climate debate. On fossil fuel divestment day, people all over the world organised parades and flashmobs to ask banks, universities and public institutions to divest from fossil fuels.

Obama during his visit at the Energy Department, where he announced his plans to cut government emissions (photo: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Obama during his visit at the Energy Department, where he announced his plans to cut government emissions (photo: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Not much later, Barack Obama vetoed the Keystone XL pipeline. The project would have brought millions of barrels of dirty tar sands oil all the way from Alberta (Canada) to Texas. Years of activism of a coalition between indigenous people in Canada and ranchers in the US finally showed off. It seems that Obama is warming up and finally putting all his energy in his promises regarding climate change.

And it doesn’t stop there. Last week, the president of the United States signed an executive order to reduce U.S. Government greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2025. Although the government accounts for only 0.7% of the US emissions, it is still the single largest emitter in the States.

And it is not so much about the numbers than it is about the move. To say it with Obama’s own words: it is leading by example. And it seems to work. Big firms like HP, IBM and General Electric all committed to cut their emissions drastically over the next decade.

In France, a new law was approved by parliament which decrees new rooftops of commercial buildings should be covered in plants or solar panels. Rooftops plants have many benefits. They are an extra layer of insulation during winter and summer, retain rain water for some time reducing the risk of flooding during periods of heavy rains. The natural rooftops also favors biodiversity in urban areas.

Yet, not everything is going as one would want. Despite the efforts of Barack Obama to let the US play a prominent role in the action on climate change, some republican states are going the opposite direction.

In California, the term “Climate Change” was banned from all official communication lately. How ironical for a state so vulnerable for its effects. As if banning the word is going to stop the planet from warming up. Bart Bibles, a state land management plan coordinator, was even suspended from work after he wrote a report and didn’t want to remove the words climate change. He was told to get a mental check-up, as if he is the one with some serious problems.

The 28  heads of state approved the proposal for a European Energy Union last Thursday (photo: European Union)

The 28 heads of state approved the proposal for a European Energy Union last Thursday (photo: European Union)

It can get even worse. The European Union is playing a leading role in progressive climate policies, yet last week the 28 heads of state accepted the the Energy Union proposal of the European Comission. This energy union is a logical next step in Europe with its free transport of people and goods. The Energy Union is intended to make the European electricity network more robust and less dependent of Russian gas. Most Europeans can only applaud this motives.

But the  EU miss an enormous opportunity in the way they now plan to fulfill this objectives. This is the ideal moment to fully prioritize renewables and efficiency targets. But the energy union seems to put gas on the first place. As the tension with Russia grows, the European Comission looks for European gas resources, instead of turning away from more gas instead. It is true: the burning of natural gas is up to 50% cleaner than conventional oil, but the production can be much more devastating. The whole plan doesn’t seem to match the spirit of the European goals on higher energy efficiency and renewable energy generation. As Brook Riley of Friends of the Earth Europe said:

It’s baffling to see governments putting gas in prime position when these plans were born out of a desire to end gas import dependency. Heads of state seem to have fallen for gas industry propaganda. Saying gas is a clean fossil fuel is like saying filter cigarettes will prevent lung cancer.

With nine months left until the Climate Summit in Paris, politicians seem to start feeling the hot breath of the climate movement. But they way they’re reacting to it is not always what wise leaders should do -we’ve still a long way to go.

Sources:
The Washington Post
Reuters
TheGuardian
Friends of the Earth

More

A short history of climate change – part 2

By the end of the sixties climate scientists are far from a consensus about the scale and underlying mechanisms driving the change in climate which is taking place. Yet, there’s two things that are becoming very clear: carbon dioxide has an important impact on it and humans are pushing the atmospheric CO2 levels up to unseen values.

The greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing our climate now.

1972 First UN environment conference ever taking place in Stockholm. The focus lies on chemical pollution and whaling, climate change is addressed shortly. The Unep (United Nations Environment Programme) is created.

1987 Montréal Protocol is agreed to restrict the CFCs which damage the ozone layer. The agreement shows that political agreement over international planetary action is possible. Today scientist have shown slow but steady recovery of the ozone layer.

1988 James Hansen, climate scientist at NASA, bears testimony over the scientific findings: “The Earth is warmer in 1988 than at any time in the history of instrumental measurements. There is only a 1 percent chance of an accidental warming of this magnitude…. The greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing our climate now.”

Hansen's historical testimony in US Senate

Hansen’s historical testimony in US Senate

1988 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is founded. They provide reports which give insight in the current climate change models and predictions. The reports are the reference for policy makers.

1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where governments agree the United Framework Convention on Climate Change. Countries agree to bring their emissions back to 1990 levels. Till today 1990 is commonly used as reference base for emissions.

1997 Kyoto Protocol is adopted in Kyoto, Japan. Based on the premise that climate change is real and driven by human carbon dioxide emissions, developed nations agree to cut emissions by an average 5% starting from 2005. Yet the US and China, among the biggest polluters, don’t ratify the agreement.

Many see Earth Summit 1992 as the beginning of worldwide climate policy

Many see Earth Summit 1992 as the beginning of worldwide climate policy

1998 Warmest year on record at the time. Scientists still debate whether it is due to climate change, El Nino or both.

2007 IPCC fourth assessment report says it more than 90% sure that humanity is responsible for modern day climate change.

2008 Barack Obama promises to make Global Warming as one of his key working points. Seven years later, not much has been done. Giving his fiat for fracking of shale gas all over the US, he even opens the door to a welcome excuse for fossil fuel companies to wait a bit longer with renewables. Yet, only recently he vetoed the Keystone XL pipeline. This ensures a lot of oil is kept in the ground – where it should be.

Barack Obama made climate change one if his top priorities - not much has been done

Barack Obama made climate change one if his top priorities – not much has been done

2009 Not long before the long-anticipated climate talks in Copenhagen, emails of climate scientists, some of which working for the IPCC, are published on the internet. Sceptics use them to put the climate scientists in bad light and accuse them of lies and fraude. Eight independent communities are founded by different countries in order to investigate the accusations – none of them turn out to be true.

2009 UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen. Expectations are high to find a post-Kyoto international agreement on climate change, but no binding results are reached. When the end of the conference is approaching without any binding deals, climate activists desperately try to get into the building where the world leaders are gathered. It comes to a severe clash with riot police.

2010 European Parliament approves Europe 2020, a ten-year strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% relative to 1990 levels, 20% increase in energy efficiency, and a share of 20% of renewable energy sources in total energy consumption.

Barosso presents the Europe 2020 deals: a bold plan to make Europe world leader in sustainable energy

Barosso presents the Europe 2020 deals: a bold plan to make Europe world leader in sustainable energy

2013 For the first time the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has reached the 400ppm level. 350ppm is regarded as the upper safe level.

2014 The new IPCC report based on more than 900 peer reviewed articles says 99% of scientists agree that modern-day climate change is due to mankind emissions. They outline 5 scenarios and the concept of the carbon budget. To keep warming under 2°C we must start reducing emissions drastically in the next decade or we will simply be too late.

2014 People’s Climate March in New York: an estimated 311 000 people gathered in what became the biggest collective action for the climate in history. The march was intended to urge political leaders, who would arrive a few days later for a climate top in the Big Apple, to take action on climate change.

The People's Climate March was the biggest collective action for the climate in history

The People’s Climate March was the biggest collective action for the climate in history

2014 China and US announce together to cut their emissions. An important symbolic step.

2014 Europe makes bolder plans for 2030 than the earlier agreed 20-20 deal.

2014 Climate summit in Lima, Peru, shows once again the deep division between developed and developing nations (see this earlier post). An historical agreement is reached where all nations present promise to cut emission (but still no binding numbers). Everyone puts his hope on Climate Summit in Paris 2015, seen as the last moment we can change the course before it’s too late.

2015 2014 is officially declared as being the warmest year on record. This time there’s no El Nino to blame. Journalism group Climate Central puts it like this: the odds of such a year happening by chance rather than due to a combination of man-made pollution and natural climate variability are less than 1-in-27 million (read also this post).

Main source:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-15874560

More