President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord is a blow to work done by the Obama administration to address climate change. It’s possible, however, that the move won’t affect the country’s ability to hit the agreement’s first milestone, but it’s highly unlikely that the U.S. will hit the next target in 2025.
Even without U.S. participation, current domestic environmental policies and economic trends — which favor clean energy — make it possible that by 2020, carbon emissions in this country will be reduced nearly 17 percent below 2005 levels.
During that year, the U.S. released more than 6,500 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In the decade since, the amount of pollutants has decreased dramatically as states began enacting their own set of policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions and federal emissions regulations were put on vehicles and power plants.
Those efforts have already resulted in a 13.7 percent reduction in carbon emissions, according to the research analysis firm Rhodium Group.
But if the current administration does away with existing policies such as waivers that allow for more stringent state environmental laws or higher fuel efficiency standards for cars, experts doubt whether the U.S. will come close to the 2020 goal.
Tag: greenhouse gas emissions
Will Cars of the Future Run on Algae?
Algae, the photosynthetic organisms that float at the ocean’s surface, already produce roughly three quarters of the planet’s oxygen. But one group of scientists think these simple cells could do even more to clean the atmosphere.
Algenol, a Florida-based biotech company founded in 2006, has patented a way for the blue-green, single-celled organisms to produce four key fuels — ethanol, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel — all for a little under $1.30 a gallon and with two-thirds less greenhouse gas emissions.
While it may sound strange to think of pulling up to a gas station to buy algae, supporters point out that’s what drivers are already doing: crude oil pumped from underground is often derived from algae that settled on the seafloor eons ago and decayed into a waxy substance known as kerogen. When heated by pressure, kerogen liquifies into either oil or natural gas. Essentially, Algenol has condensed the timeline, creating the biofuels at their four-acre plant, rather than waiting for them to be drilled out of the crust.
In broad strokes, Algenol’s technology looks similar to what many biofuel companies already do to ferment sugars from corn, soybeans or animal fats into fuels like ethanol. But its method requires no farmland or freshwater. Instead, Algenol’s algae hangs in bags of seawater and is exposed to the Florida sunshine and carbon-dioxide to produce the sugars required for ethanol directly. That’s where the science gets tricky: by adding enzymes, the process enhances algae’s fermentation, so that it devotes its energy to producing sugar for fuel rather than its own maintenance and survival. After that, the spent “green crude” by-product is further refined into other fuels. The company boasts that the process is far more efficient than anything farm-raised, converting more than 85 percent of its inputs into fuel.
It’s an impressive scientific achievement, but Algenol’s financials face strong headwinds. A recent glut of oil from worldwide markets caused a steep drop in prices at the pump, creating obstacles to market penetration and slowing emergent technologies. And major support from the federal government, in the form of grants, loans and tax credits, largely expired in 2011. In late October, the company announced a 20 percent reduction in the workforce and the Algenol’s founder, Paul Woods, stepped down.
While cheap gas may be a boon to consumers’ pocketbooks now, eventually we will all have to pay the steep price for its pollution. It’s up to us to pick what kind of algae we want to keep putting in our cars.
MORE: It’s No Bull: These 400 Homes Are Powered by Cow Manure
Scientists Have Figured out How to Convert CO2 Into a Useful Material
We all know that carbon dioxide, or CO2, isn’t just plant food. Due to human activity (from burning petroleum, coal and natural gas), too much of this naturally occurring gas is released into the air, where it becomes a greenhouse gas that traps heat and bakes our planet, contributing to climate change.
However, several companies are finding ways to capture this excessive carbon and turn it into a wide range of useful products. National Geographic recently featured three of these businesses that are sparing the atmosphere from this harmful pollutant.
1. Baking soda — Skyonic in Austin, Texas
This environmental engineering firm’s patented SkyCycleTM technology can capture more than 94 percent of emitted CO2 from a plant’s flue gas stream, according to MarketWatch. It then converts the captured emissions into baking soda and other chemicals that can be sold to cattle and oil industries. “We can take something that’s waste and turn it into something that’s profit,” President and CEO Joe Jones tells Bloomberg. “In a world that’s unsettled on carbon, we’re making actual progress.”
2. From wasted CO2 to fuel — Joule in Bedford, Massachusetts
This biofirm uses genetically engineered pond scum that can turn CO2 straight into fuel through photosynthesis. Sounds a little sci-fi, but what this company has done is created liquid fuel without needing a dinosaur to fossilize for millions of years underground, as National Geographic puts it. “What we are producing is really the same product that is being produced by the fuel industry today. We’re just doing it in real time,” says Tom Jensen, the company’s head of corporate development. Incredibly, if this technology is successfully scaled up, Joule’s fuel would only cost $50 a barrel, or $1.20 gallon, the company says.
3. Green plastics — Novomer in Waltham, Massachusetts
This chemical company uses carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide as a raw material to produce plastics, polymers and other chemicals. According to the company, while most plastics are manufactured almost entirely from fossil fuels, Novomer’s technology replaces up to half of the fossil fuels in the materials with carbon dioxide. National Geographic reports that the company currently sells its products in three forms: hot-melt adhesives (for autos, shoes, furniture, textiles), rigid insulating foam (used for insulating homes and buildings) and coatings (used for decoration and protection of metal, plastic and wood). “Converting carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide from pollution into valuable materials has the potential to transform the plastics and materials landscape on a global scale,” says CEO Jim Mahoney.
DON’T MISS: This Technology Will Let You Recycle Plastic Bottles to Make Anything
How Tetris Can Simply Explain the Most Important Issue Facing Humanity
Climate change is one of the most important challenges of our time. But as globally significant as it is, it’s also incredibly complicated to explain.
That’s why the geniuses at TED-Ed have put out a new video that uses the game of Tetris as an analogy of this critical problem. Their short lesson clocks in at just 2:49 minutes so it won’t take up too much of your time.
The video simply shows that as we continue driving our cars and burning more fuel at factories and power plants, carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere as “blocks” that warm the planet (also known as the greenhouse effect). It also doesn’t help that we’re mowing down the forests that suck up this CO2.
And just like the video game, if we can’t clear these CO2 blocks, they’ll just build up faster and faster until it’s game over.
MORE: These Scientists Were Fed Up with Climate Change Deniers. Here’s What They Did About It.
“Ultimately it’s a game we are all stuck playing,” says narrator Joss Fong. “And unlike in Tetris, we won’t get a chance to start over and try again.”
[ph]
ALSO: Earth Day 2014: 5 Surprising Things That Harm the Planet (and 5 Simple Ways to Help Save It)
Why New Farm and Construction Equipment Will Improve Air Quality and Save Lives
Diesel-sapping farm vehicles and construction equipment are going the way of the dodo — thanks to new standards from the Environmental Protection Agency that have forced big equipment makers to go green.
Like cars, buses, and heavy-duty trucks, bulldozers and tractors are getting a much-needed green makeover. Prompted by the EPA’s latest emission standards, manufacturers have cut fine particles (linked to heart attacks and respiratory disease) and nitrogen oxides in their newer models by 99 percent, the Environmental Health News reports. Additionally, CO2 (a driver of greenhouse gas) has also been reduced due to improved fuel efficiency.
These new standards are obviously welcome news because they should dramatically impact air quality. As the Los Angeles Times reported in 2003 when talks of diesel-emission regulations first began, even though you don’t usually see tractors and bulldozers on the road, they account for 44 percent of soot and 12 percent of nitrogen oxide in the U.S. atmosphere.
MORE: What the Demise of Car Ownership Means for the Planet
Now that these standards are in place, not only will our lungs benefit from cleaner air, countless lives should also be saved, as farmers and construction workers are especially prone to diesel-related illnesses such as cancer, respiratory disease, and heart attacks. Amazingly, the EPA estimates that by 2030, the new standards will prevent 12,000 premature deaths and 8,900 hospitalizations per year.
The Environmental Health News report does note that there is still room for improvement. First, there is no federal incentive to buy greener equipment. Secondly, compared to cars or trucks, it takes much longer to replace bulldozers and tractors (some date back to the 1950s and 60s). However, these new EPA regulations mean that when farmers or construction workers finally do replace their gear, they will have no choice but to buy green because that’s all that is available.
Now that’s bulldozing our way to a cleaner future.
If LeBron James Says Climate Change is Cool, It Will Be
Reps from the 4 major U.S. sports leagues—NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB—went to Washington, D.C. recently to talk about their leagues’ greenhouse gas emissions. This gives me hope that sustainability will get some much-needed cred and visibility. Because if you really want to catch peoples’ attention and change their actions, you need more than the right message. What you need is the right messenger too. Preferably a talented, famous person whom millions of fans look up to.