World Produced 44m Tonnes of E-Waste in 2017

16.02.2019

e-waste-2049017_960_720 — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

More than 44 million tonnes of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) was produced globally in 2017, with a majority being sent to landfill.

That’s more than six kilograms for every person on the planet and equivalent to all the commercial aircraft every built, according to a new report.

It reveals the annual value of global e-waste is more than $62.5 billion (£48.5bn) – more than the GDP of most countries.

The report from the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE) and the UN E-Waste Coalition adds less than 20% of e-waste is “formally recycled”, with 80% either ending up in landfill or being “informally recycled” – much of it by hand in developing countries, exposing workers to hazardous substances such as mercury and lead.

E-waste in landfill contaminates soil and groundwater, putting food supply systems and water sources at risk.

In addition to health and pollution impacts, improper management of e-waste is also said to result in a “significant” loss of scarce and valuable raw materials, such as gold, platinum, cobalt and rare earth elements.

The report suggests as much as 7% of the world’s gold may currently be contained in e-waste, “with 100 times more gold in a tonne of e-waste than in a tonne of gold ore”.

It was previously revealed tens of thousands of tonnes of e-waste are shipped in used vehicles from European ports to Nigeria – up to 100,000 people are said to work in the informal e-waste sector in the country.

The new report calls for an overhaul of the current electronics system, emphasising the need for a circular economy in which resources are not extracted, used and discarded but valued and reused in ways that minimise environmental impacts.

Solutions include durable product design, buy-back and return systems for used electronics and ‘urban mining’ to extract metals and minerals from e-waste.

Source: Energy Live News

Could Moon Mining Mission Be the Key to Sustainable Rocket Fuel?

15.02.2019

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A mission to mine on the moon could be the key to creating sustainable rocket fuel.

That’s the verdict from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the ArianeGroup, which have signed a one-year contract to prepare for a space-based mission with the aim of mining regolith ore.

They say it is possible to extract water and oxygen from the ore, enabling a self-sustaining human settlement on the Moon to be built.

The organisations also note oxygen-rich regolith can be used to produce the rocket fuel needed for more distant exploratory missions.

German start-up PTScientists will provide the lunar lander and small Belgian business Space Applications Services will provide the ground control facilities, the communications and the associated service operations.

André-Hubert Roussel, CEO of ArianeGroup, said: “The use of space resources could be a key to sustainable lunar exploration and this study is part of ESA’s comprehensive plan to make Europe a partner in global exploration in the next decade.”

Source: Energy Live News

Climate Change Seen as Top Threat in Global Survey

15.02.2019

climate-change-3835520_960_720 — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Climate change is seen as the biggest international threat facing many nations, according to a 26-country survey released by the Pew Research Center on Sunday.

Thirteen of the countries surveyed listed global warming as their top security concern. Other major concerns were the Islamic State or ISIS, listed as the top threat by eight countries, cyberattacks, picked by four including the U.S. and Russia’s power and influence, which was chosen as the top threat by Poland.

“Overall we’ve seen that general climate concerns and specifically global climate change had been at the top of the list or near the top of the list along with terrorism in the five years in which we’ve been doing these questions,” Pew Research Center Associate Director Jacob Poushter told U.S. News & World Report.

However, the number of respondents worried about climate change has risen substantially over the past five years. In 2013, a median of 56 percent of respondents across all 23 countries surveyed that year rated it as a top concern. That number rose to 63 percent in 2017 and 67 percent in 2018. Overall, climate change is seen as the top threat by a median of respondents across all 26 countries surveyed in 2018, closely followed by ISIS.

The biggest change in opinion over the past five years was the rise in respondents who listed U.S. power and influence as a major threat. A quarter of 22 nations saw the U.S. as a threat in 2013, but that number rose to 38 percent after President Donald Trump was elected in 2017 and climbed to 45 percent in 2018, two years into his presidency. In 17 countries surveyed, those who have little confidence in the current U.S. president are more likely to list U.S. influence as a threat. The survey did not assess whether Trump’s hostility to climate science and decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris agreement contributed to respondents’ view of the the U.S. as a global threat.

While climate change is a top concern across many nations, the survey did agree with many other recent polls in recording a partisan divide on the issue within individual countries. In the U.S. and Europe, those on the ideological left are more likely to see climate change as a threat than ISIS, while on the right, this is flipped. For example, Republicans in the U.S. are 56 percent less likely to list climate change as a threat than Democrats. Those who support Germany’s right wing Alternative for Germany and the UKIP in Great Britain are 28 percent and 22 percent less likely to see climate change as a threat, respectively, compared to those who don’t.

On a country-by-country basis, climate change was seen as a major threat by 90 percent of respondents in Greece, 83 percent in France and 80 percent in Mexico. However, ISIS actually beat climate change as France’s top threat, with 87 percent of respondents listing it. All three Latin American countries surveyed listed climate change as their top concern, whereas six out of 10 European countries surveyed picked it as the number one threat.

The survey was conducted between May 14 and Aug. 12, 2018 and had 27,612 respondents.

Source: Eco Watch

Drax Becomes ‘World’s First’ Bioenergy Plant to Capture Carbon from Wood-Burning

14.02.2019

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The giant Drax power station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, has become the first in Europe to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from wood-burning.

Drax burns seven million tonnes of wood chips each year to drive generators to make electricity. The firm has now begun a pilot project to capture one tonne a day of CO2 from its wood combustion. The technology effectively turns climate change into reverse on a tiny scale, but it’s controversial.

When a forest grows, the trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to make their wood. If you burn that wood, the process doesn’t emit any extra CO2 into the atmosphere – because the trees removed it from the air in the first place. It’s called carbon neutral. If you go one step further by capturing the CO2 from wood burning, you’re actually reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere overall. In an ideal world you’d go one step further by creating useful products from the waste CO2.

This technology is known as Bio Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS).

Many scientists believe it will be needed because they don’t trust politicians to curb the CO2 emissions that are over-heating the planet. They say that unless carbon emissions start falling dramatically, we will overshoot the recommended safety limit of a 1.5C rise in global temperature.

There are two main reasons for controversy. First is the impact on the plants and animals living on the huge amount of land needed to grow the trees and plants needed to generate power on a wide scale. Second is the amount of additional energy needed to capture and store the carbon.

Let’s just take the example of Drax.

The power station generates 6% of the UK’s electricity whilst burning seven million tonnes of wood a year – that’s more wood than is harvested in the whole of Britain. The majority of the supply comes from the US, where forests are expanding as small-scale farmers allow unprofitable land to go back to nature.

Drax says most of its fuel is residue from forest industries – that’s offcuts and unsuitable trees for timber. A previous BBC investigation found that some of the wood almost certainly also comes from species-rich swamp forests in the southern US.

This is where the numbers get a bit mind-boggling. One estimate suggests that a staggering amount of land would be required to make BECCS feasible under the Paris climate agreement — perhaps as much as three times the area of India.

Harvard University professor David Keith warned: “We must be cautious of technologies that aim to remediate the carbon problem while greatly expanding our impact on the land.”

That impact will depend on many variables, such as whether the wood is so-called “waste”; whether it comes from plantation forests or natural forests; how its removal from the forest reduces the amount of material that will lock up carbon in the soil; how it’s transported – and more.

Drax is trialling a new system devised at Leeds university. Most existing carbon capture technologies use a chemical in the amine group.

It is drizzled down through a flue gas chimney, where it absorbs the CO2. A further process separates the CO2 from the amine, which can be re-used.

The Drax experiment is working with a tech spin-off called C-Capture. It uses an organic solvent which it says is less toxic than amine and uses less energy.

It’s one of several products on the market as chemists strive to find new ways of taking CO2 out of the air.

Andy Koss, CEO of Drax Power, admits that its carbon capture pilot is tiny – but says it’s an important step towards getting the whole plant capturing its CO2 – and finding a market to use it.

“This is a really important technology,” he told us. “We are definitely going to need it if we want to keep within the 1.5C temperature limit proposed by scientists. “

Almuth Ernsting from the pressure group Biofuelwatch takes the opposite view. “Burning biomass is absolutely the wrong option for so many reasons,” she said. “Forests are vital for the health of the climate so we need to keep them not burn them. The Drax experiment is so ridiculously tiny it’s hard to believe it’s not ‘greenwash’.”

Source: BBC

Australia Rejects New Coal Mine on Environmental Grounds

14.02.2019

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An Australian court has rejected plans for a new coal mine on environmental grounds.

In a landmark ruling for the coal-dependent nation, Chief Justice Brian Preston said the proposed facility in New South Wales would worse climate change and would be in “the wrong place at the wrong time”.

Environmentalists hope the New South Wales Land and Environment Court’s decision regarding the open-cut Gloucester Resources mine would set a legal precedent going forwards – Australia is currently one of the world’s largest producers of the fossil fuel and the world’s largest exporter.

Justice Preston said: “It matters not that this aggregate of the Project’s greenhouse gas emissions may represent a small fraction of the global total. Not every natural resource needs to be exploited.”

Gloucester Resources have previously said the project would create 170 jobs and would be in place for two decades.

The number of active coal mines operating in the US more than halved between 2008 and 2017.

Source: Energy Live News

Education and Conscientious Behaviour Are Necessary for the Change

13.02.2019

September was an important month for Serbia when it comes to the kind of impression we make on the world about our ecological awareness. The annual meeting of the Aarhus Centres was held on September 19 and 20, at Lake IssykKul in Kyrgyzstan. We talked to Una Mijovic, a delegate from Aarhus Centre in Novi Sad, who was invited by the OSCE Secretariat to represent Serbia at this year’s meeting. Una explained to us why Aarhus centres are important and in what way they help citizens to actively participate in decision-making at all levels of authority regarding the quality of the environment they live in.

EP: Explain to us what it is based on, starting from the very idea of Aarhus?

Una Mijovic: The Aarhus Convention or the Convention on the Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters was adopted on 28 June 1998 in Aarhus, Denmark. Its goal is to protect the right of individuals, present and future generations to live in an environment that is adequate for their health and well-being. The Republic of Serbia ratified it in 2009, thus taking the obligation to apply and implement its provisions into the legislation. The significance of the Aarhus Convention is derived from the need of every individual and the entire society to live in the healthy environment, either in a city or in a rural environment, to ensure better and healthier life for present and future generations. The quality of the environment significantly affects our health, and the implementation of the Aarhus Convention allows citizens to participate in decision-making actively and to achieve legal and judicial protection in case of the failure of its implementation. This year is the anniversary for the Aarhus Convention since it was adopted 20 years ago.

EP: There are so-called “three pillars” of the Aarhus Convention. What do they represent?

Una Mijovic: Yes, the Aarhus Convention is based on three pillars: access to information, public participation in decision-making and legal protection. The three listed pillars are envisaged as instruments for citizens to exercise their right to live in a healthy environment. The availability of information implies that the citizens have the right to receive accurate, complete and up-to-date information about the environment from relevant institutions and all levels of authority. The participation of the public in decision-making obliges decision-makers to involve the public in the process. This pillar also gives the public the right to be included in the decision-making. The legal protection represents the possibility and the right of the public to demand, before the courts, the compliance of the Convention and the implementation of the right from the first two pillars, in cases when their implementation was initially ceased.

EP: How do Aarhus Centres operate in Serbia?

Una Mijovic: Aarhus centres are civil society organizations whose goal is to establish cooperation between the citizens and relevant levels of authority, local municipalities, and even beyond that, the implementation of the provisions of the Convention. Their goal is to help all participants in making decisions on issues relevant to environment, and in strengthening their capacities in the implementation of environmental regulations. Aarhus centres should also ensure that the decision-making process in the environmental sector is democratic. There are five Aarhus centres in Serbia, based in Kragujevac, Nis, Novi Sad, Subotica and Belgrade. Together they form the Network of Aarhus Centres in Serbia. Aarhus Centres have been established under the auspices of the OSCE Mission in Serbia. Centres carry out their activities and projects and achieve their goals by mutual cooperation, communication and coordination.

EP: What are the pending issues in the Aarhus centres?

Una Mijovic: Topical themes that Aarhus centres in Serbia are dealing with are waste management, circular or green economy, recycling, water quality, climate change as well as meeting the conditions for opening the Chapter 27 in pre-accession negotiations. Aarhus Centre in Novi Sad has developed the Study on the progress towards the circular (sustainable) economy in Vojvodina. The Study identifies the challenges that are met on the way of implementing the circular economy in the construction and agriculture. It also identifies the drivers and blockers of eco-initiatives in Vojvodina and examples of good-practices in these areas. This Study is one big venture and the only one of this kind in Serbia.

EP: You have recently returned from the annual gathering of the Aarhus Centres in Kyrgyzstan. What was discussed at the Convention?

Una Mijovic: This year’s annual meeting of Aarhus Centres from several countries was held in Kyrgyzstan under the auspices of the OSCE in September. Representatives of 15 Aarhus Centres, relevant Ministries from different countries and international organisations attended this meeting. At the meeting, they shared the information on the activities of Aarhus Centres, experiences and projects that Aarhus Centres have been dealing with. Topics such as toxic waste management, with a special emphasis on the Centres involved in solving uranium problems in the countries of Central Asia, then strengthening the risk management capacities, reducing the risk of natural disasters and climate change at the local level, as well as the approach to water management and the promotion of green (sustainable) economy and resource efficiency at the local level were in the focus.

EP: What made the strongest impression on you at the Convention? Were new goals set up there and how would that affect Serbia?

Una Mijovic: The annual meeting showed the diversity of environmental problems and issues that countries in different parts of the world face while implementing the Aarhus Convention. The focus was on the conversation on how to achieve the goals the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. By sharing ideas and experiences, we have come to the conclusions how we can implement our goals and influence the creation of a healthier and sustainable environment in a better way.

Prepered by: Milan Zlatanovic

Read the whole interview in the new issue of the Energy portal Magazine on CIRCULAR ECONOMY, September-November 2018.

Enough Plastic Produced Each Day to Make 22 Trillion Water Bottles

13.02.2019

jonathan-chng-1057613-unsplash — Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Jonathan Chng)

Enough plastic is produced each day to make almost 22 trillion water bottles.

That’s according to the National Geographic Society and Sky Ocean Ventures, which say more than 90% of this volume will never be recycled – to address this troubling issue, the two organisations have teamed up to launch the Ocean Plastic Innovation Challenge.

The programme aims to source ideas from around the world about how to solve the problem of plastic waste.

It is split into three sections, with each one eligible for prizes totalling up to $500,000 (£387,000).

The first challenge is a call to design better packaging, such as creating a biodegradable coffee cup or chocolate bar wrapper.

The second challenge aims to find new, creative zero-waste business models, while the third looks to find a way to effectively demonstrate the scale of the plastics pollution problem.

Innovators can submit their ideas until the 11th of June, which is when a team of judges selected by National Geographic and Sky Ocean Ventures will pick the best ideas, to be announced in December.

Fred Michel, Head of Sky Ocean Ventures, said: “The key point is to help these innovators. We want to help them grow, develop their product, do great innovation and then go to market and get these ideas adopted by consumers.”

Source: Energy Live News

Nikola Motor Company Proves Low Carbon Trucks Can Go the Distance

13.02.2019

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Nikola Motor Company proves low carbon trucks can go the distance.

The firm has announced it will officially reveal its Nikola Two and Nikola Tre models at its Nikola World conference, which takes place on the 16th and 17th of April in Phoenix, US.

The trucks will be built in both hydrogen and battery electric versions and customers will be able to order both vehicles in 500kWh, 750kWh and 1mWh options.

Although the bulk of the firm’s product line is likely to consist of fully electric semi-trucks, it says it will also keep working on hydrogen-powered lorries, which it says are cheaper and better suited for long-haul drives.

Meanwhile, it claims EVs are more useful for inner cities and non-weight sensitive applications.

Initially, the startup expects to see as many as 50 times more orders for hybrids than for its electric offerings.

Source: Energy Live News

New Chemistry Technique Turns Waste Plastic Into Clean Fuel

12.02.2019

eddie-howell-1311472-unsplash — Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Eddie Howell)

Waste plastic is choking the Earth’s oceans and poisoning its wildlife. That’s why researchers at Purdue University are excited about a new chemical technique that turns waste plastic back into useful polymers — or even clean fuel.

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Eddie Howell)

The new technique works on polypropelene, according to a new paper published in the journal Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, which is used to make everything from toys to snack food bags. The technique users super-heated water to convert the plastic into a gasoline-like fuel that could be used to fuel conventional vehicles.

“Our strategy is to create a driving force for recycling by converting polyolefin waste into a wide range of valuable products, including polymers, naphtha (a mixture of hydrocarbons), or clean fuels,” said Linda Wang, a researcher at Purdue University and leader of the research team behind the new technique, in a press release. “Our conversion technology has the potential to boost the profits of the recycling industry and shrink the world’s plastic waste stock.”

Polypropelene accounts for about 23 percent of the five billions of tons of plastic waste that’s been cast into landfills and the environment, according to the new research — meaning that if it could be turned into a valuable commodity, it’d create a huge incentive to recover and re-purpose it.

“Plastic waste disposal, whether recycled or thrown away, does not mean the end of the story,” Wang said. “These plastics degrade slowly and release toxic microplastics and chemicals into the land and the water. This is a catastrophe, because once these pollutants are in the oceans, they are impossible to retrieve completely.”

Source: Futurism

Insects Could Go Extinct Within a Century, With ‘Catastrophic’ Consequences for Life on Earth

12.02.2019

timo-vijn-59490-unsplash — Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Timo Vijn)

More than 40 percent of the world’s insects could go extinct in the next few decades, according to a report that lead author Francisco Sánchez-Bayo told CNN was the first global review of the threats facing the class that makes up 70 percent of earth’s animals.

A third of insects are endangered species, and they are going extinct at a rate eight times that of birds, mammals and reptiles. That amounts to a loss of 2.5 percent of insect mass every year over the last three decades.

“It is very rapid,” Sánchez Bayo told The Guardian. “In 10 years you will have a quarter less, in 50 years only half left and in 100 years you will have none.”

Sánchez-Bayo, from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney, worked with Kris Wyckhuys of the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing and the University of Queensland on the report, published in Biological Conservation. Together they examined 73 reports looking at the global decline in insect biodiversity in order to assess its main causes.

The chief drivers of the decline are, in order of magnitude:

* Habitat loss caused by intensive agriculture and urbanization
* Pollution caused mainly by pesticides and fertilizer
* Diseases and competition with newly introduced species
* Climate change, particularly in the tropics

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Andy Holmes)

Intensive agriculture has been particularly deadly for insects, Sánchez-Bayo told The Guardian, because it usually leads to the clearing of trees and shrubs surrounding fields. In addition, pesticides like neonicotinoids and fipronil developed in the last 20 years kill all of the grubs in the soil they are used on, effectively sterilizing it.

A rapid decline in insect populations would be “catastrophic” for the rest of life on earth, the report authors wrote. Insects are essential as pollinators, food sources and nutrient recyclers in many ecosystems.

“It should be of huge concern to all of us,” University of Sussex professor Dave Goulson, who was not involved in the study, told The Guardian, “For insects are at the heart of every food web, they pollinate the large majority of plant species, keep the soil healthy, recycle nutrients, control pests, and much more. Love them or loathe them, we humans cannot survive without insects.”

The report calls for a major overhaul of the world’s agriculture system in order to save insects and the rest of the earth’s ecosystems.

“A rethinking of current agricultural practices, in particular a serious reduction in pesticide usage and its substitution with more sustainable, ecologically-based practices, is urgently needed to slow or reverse current trends, allow the recovery of declining insect populations and safeguard the vital ecosystem services they provide,” Sánchez-Bayo and Wyckhuys wrote.

Source: Eco Watch

France Is the First Country to Ban All 5 Pesticides Linked to Bee Deaths

11.02.2019

annie-spratt-418644-unsplash — Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Annie Spratt)

France will take a radical step towards protecting its dwindling bee population on Saturday by becoming the first country in Europe to ban all five pesticides researchers believe are killing off the insects.

The move to ban the five so-called neonicotinoids has been hailed by beekeepers and environmentalists, but cereal and sugar beet farmers warn it could leave them all but defenceless in protecting valuable crops against other harmful insects.

By enforcing the blanket ban, France is going further than the European Union, which voted to outlaw the use of three neonicotinoids – clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam – in crop fields starting on December 19.

France has banned these three, along with thiacloprid and acetamiprid, not only outdoors but in greenhouses too.

Initially opposed, Britain now backs the less comprehensive EU ban due to evidence supporting claims the chemicals contribute to “colony collapse disorder”, a mysterious phenomenon that has seen bee populations plummet by up to 90 per cent in some cases. Other potential causes are mites, viruses and fungi.

Introduced in the mid-1990s, synthetic neonicotinoids share the chemical structure of nicotine and attack the central nervous system of insects. Intended to replace older, more harmful pesticides, they are now the most widely used to treat flowering crops, such as fruit trees, beets and vineyards.

But scientific studies have shown that neonicotinoids cut bees’ sperm count and scramble their memory and homing skills. Fresh research out this week even suggests the bees can develop a dangerous addiction to the insecticides, much like smokers for nicotine.

Some French farmers are angry, however, and say there is not enough evidence that neonicotinoids are responsible for bee decline.

Farmers faced a “dramatic technical dead-end,” said France’s biggest farming union FNSEA, calling for exemptions in sectors “where there are no alternatives or insufficient ones”.

The ban “will exacerbate unfair competition with European and non-European producers” still allowed to use the pesticides, they warned.

A report by France’s ANSES public health agency said in May there were “sufficiently effective, and operational” alternatives to the majority of neonicotinoids used in France.

Others believe the ban should go further.

“There are pesticides all over the place,” Fabien Van Hoecke, a beekeeper in Saint-Aloué in Brittany, who lost 86 per cent of his bees over the winter. While the ban was “a good thing, it won’t save us,” he told AFP, predicting that as soon as they are withdrawn, they will be “replaced by others”.

Source: Telegraph

It’s Not Just a Myth – EV Batteries Really Do Suffer in the Cold

11.02.2019

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It’s not just a myth – electric vehicle (EV) batteries really do suffer in the cold.

That’s the conclusion from a new study undertaken by the American Automobile Association (AAA), which found when temperatures dropped to -6.5°C, the EV range fell by an average of 41%, based on the five models tested.

The organisation claims the study is the first to have used standard, repeatable methodology to confirm the problem and compare the effect of winter temperatures on different models.

It suggests impact on range was very similar among the cars tested, which included the BMW i3s, the Chevrolet Bolt, the Nissan Leaf, the Tesla Model S and the Volkswagen e-Golf.

Tests show just turning on the EVs at -6.5°C revealed a 12% loss in range, a figure which dropped even further when cabin heat and seat heaters were turned on, plummeting by 41% – this bring an EV like the Chevrolet Bolt down to just 140 miles per charge.

Greg Brannon, AAA’s Director of Automotive Engineering, said: “We found that the impact of temperature on EVs is significantly more than we expected. It’s something all automakers are going to have to deal with as they push for further EV deployment because it’s something that could surprise consumers.”

A spokesperson for Tesla said: “Based on real-world data from our fleet, which includes millions of long trips taken by real Model S customers, we know with certainty that, even when using heating and air conditioning, the average Model S customer doesn’t experience anywhere near that decrease in range at 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-6.5°C).

Source: Energy Live News

Melting Glaciers ‘Uncovering Landscapes for First Time in 40,000 Years’

10.02.2019

snow-3173303_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Melting glaciers in the Canadian Arctic are uncovering landscapes that haven’t been ice-free in more than 40,000 years.

That’s according to new research from the University of Colorado Boulder, where scientists suggest the region may be experiencing its hottest century in 115,000 years.

By radiocarbon dating plants found at the edges of 30 ice caps on Baffin Island, the researchers were able to to determine their ages – glacial ice preserves mosses and lichens from thousands of years ago in their original growth position.

They collected 48 plant samples across the 30 sample locations and found they have all been continuously covered by ice for at least the last 40,000 years.

They suggest their appearance now shows the island is the hottest it has ever been in that timeframe and warn Baffin could be completely ice-free within the next few centuries.

Gifford Miller, Senior Author of the research, said: “Unlike biology, which has spent the past three billion years developing schemes to avoid being impacted by climate change, glaciers have no strategy for survival. They’re well behaved, responding directly to summer temperature. If summers warm, they immediately recede; if summers cool, they advance. This makes them one of the most reliable proxies for changes in summer temperature.”

Source: Energy Live News

New Study Claims Climate Change Could Be Linked to Heart Defects in Newborns

09.02.2019

travis-grossen-553342-unsplash — Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Nathan Anderson)

Heat and pregnancy do not mix. High temps don’t just make a pregnant woman uncomfortable, the heat can actually hurt the health of her baby — and with climate change, this will probably become a bigger problem.

A study in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Heart Association found that a larger number of babies will probably be born with congenital heart defects between 2025 and 2035 due to their mothers’ exposure to higher temperatures, triggered by climate change, while pregnant. This especially holds true for moms who were pregnant through spring or summer. Climate change could result in as many as 7,000 additional cases of congenital heart defects in the United States over an 11-year period, according to the study. The Midwest will probably see the biggest percent increase, followed by the South and Northeast regions of the United States.

Earlier research found that climate change could “halt and reverse” progress made in human health over the past century, but there’s more limited research on the impact that has on pregnancy, the authors said. Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defects and can hurt a baby’s overall health and potentially impact how their body works or develops.

“The potential increases in both the number of pregnant women and maternal heat exposure suggest an alarming effect that climate change may have on reproductive health,” the study said.

Researchers figured this out by looking at data collected in the the National Birth Defects Prevention Study, a large multistate, population-based study that investigated risk factors for major structural birth defects. They also looked at climate data from the US government.

Based on climate data projections, the entire United States will face higher temperatures. New York, Midwest states such as Iowa and southeastern states such as Georgia and North Carolina will probably see greater temperature increases. There will be greater variation in temperature for southern states such as Texas and Arkansas and out west in states such as California in the summer months.

It’s unclear what the link is between high temperatures and congenital heart problems. Animal studies found that heat can cause fetal cell death and can negatively impact the proteins that play a crucial role in fetal development.

This current research builds on earlier work that found when the temperature stays high, it can hurt a mother’s chances of carrying a baby to term. Extreme heat also puts moms at risk to give birth early. Moms exposed to high heat have a bigger chance of having a baby that’s small or underweight. Mothers who endure high temperatures early in their pregnancy have a much greater risk that their baby will have congenital heart problems, earlier research has found.

“Our findings underscore the alarming impact of climate change on human health and highlight the need for improved preparedness to deal the anticipated rise in a complex condition that often requires lifelong care and follow-up,” said study author Dr. Shao Lin, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Albany. “Although this study is preliminary, it would be prudent for women in the early weeks of pregnancy to avoid heat extremes similar to the advice given to persons with cardiovascular and pulmonary disease during heat spells.”

Source: CNN

If We Save Forests, Will They Save the Climate?

08.02.2019

nathan-anderson-422081-unsplash — Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Nathan Anderson)

Wе all know that forests help fight climate change by cooling the planet. Don’t they?

They actually do, capturing and storing carbon from the air for centuries. But this is only part of the story. An increasing number of scientists are beginning to discover that the relationship is more complex than we previously thought.

The promise is sweet: give money, plant trees, we’ll be alright. We all love simple answers and forests promise just that, attracting huge amounts of money from global climate finance. Recent scientific findings, however, require us to rethink the role of trees in fighting climate change and reevaluate their relative importance among other available strategies.

Short answer: trees do not only cool the planet. While tropical forests are sure to cool the climate, forests in other parts of the world have diverse cooling and warming effects which depend on the unique conditions of geography, local climate, and species composition.

For example, trees emit a variety of chemicals, such as volatile organic compounds, some of which can cause warming. Thanks to their dark leaves, certain deciduous trees also absorb more heat than many other types of surfaces, decreasing Earth’s capacity to reflect sunlight. And if that was not enough, a few recent studies suggest that the “warming effects from forests could partially or fully offset their cooling ability.”

However, considering forests only from the narrow climate impact perspective would be unfair not only in regards to the forests themselves but also to one of the richest biotopes of life on Earth they create for myriads of species, as well as the endless ecosystem functions they perform, far beyond climate regulation. Still, while taking into account the more complex nature of forests we are starting to discover, it remains distinctly clear that reducing them to “climate saviors” would do no justice to their importance for life on Earth as a whole.

For sure, we would not like to have this close to the no-regrets solution replaced by much riskier technologies like geoengineering. There are many scientists who would rather turn into dust than acknowledge that planting more forests can cause additional warming. And yet, taking the science seriously requires us to once again consider the wide variety of mitigation options that can still keep us ahead of the necessity to deal with the consequences.

Thus, the new research is an important warning bell for those who think that we can solve climate change by planting the whole planet with forests, while not changing our lifestyles one bit.

Source: Sustainability Times

US ‘to Export More Energy Than It Imports by 2020’

08.02.2019

The US is expected to export more energy than it imports by 2020 for the first time since the 1950s.

That’s according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which suggests that is likely to happen as increases in crude oil and natural gas production outpace growth in US energy consumption.

The nation has been a net exporter of coal for decades and it started exporting more natural gas than it imports in 2017 – it is projected to export more petroleum and other liquids than it imports within the decade.

This is forecast to happen on an annual basis in 2020 and that status is to be maintained through 2050, under current laws and regulations – the EIA adds in some side cases, the US again imports more energy than it exports by the mid to late 2030s.

The report states: “The United States has imported more energy than it exports on an annual basis since 1953, when trade volumes were much smaller. Since then, when imports of energy totalled 2.3 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu), gross energy imports generally grew, reaching a peak of 35 quadrillion Btu in 2005.”

“Gross energy exports were as low as four quadrillion Btu as recently as 2002 but have since risen to more than 20 quadrillion Btu in 2018, largely because of changes in liquid fuels and natural gas trade.”

Source: Energy Live News

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