Frankly Green

Imagine Earth Without People

The human impact on earth

by Bob Holmes

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Humans are undoubtedly the most dominant species the Earth has ever known. In just a few thousand years we have swallowed up more than a third of the planet's land for our cities, farmland and pastures. By some estimates, we now commandeer 40 per cent of all its productivity. And we're leaving quite a mess behind: ploughed-up prairies, razed forests, drained aquifers, nuclear waste, chemical pollution, invasive species, mass extinctions and now the looming spectre of climate change. If they could, the other species we share Earth with would surely vote us off the planet.

15,589 Number of species threatened with extinction

Now just suppose they got their wish. Imagine that all the people on Earth - all 6.5 billion of us and counting - could be spirited away tomorrow, transported to a re-education camp in a far-off galaxy. (Let's not invoke the mother of all plagues to wipe us out, if only to avoid complications from all the corpses). Left once more to its own devices, Nature would begin to reclaim the planet, as fields and pastures reverted to prairies and forest, the air and water cleansed themselves of pollutants, and roads and cities crumbled back to dust.

Increasing Acidity Threatens Sea Life

Ocean growing more acidic faster than once thought, study shows

The University of Chicago News
November 25, 2008

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Increasing acidity threatens sea life

University of Chicago scientists have documented that the ocean is growing more acidic faster than previously thought. In addition, they have found that the increasing acidity correlates with increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a paper published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Nov. 24.

"Of the variables the study examined that are linked to changes in ocean acidity, only atmospheric carbon dioxide exhibited a corresponding steady change," said J. Timothy Wootton, the lead author of the study and Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago.

Slab of Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses Amid Warming

Reuters UK
By Will Dunham

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite images show that a large hunk of Antarctica's Wilkins Ice Shelf has started to collapse in a fast-warming region of the continent, scientists said on Tuesday.

The area of collapse measured about 160 square miles of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, according to satellite imagery from the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a broad sheet of permanent floating ice that spans about 5,000 square miles and is located on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula about 1,000 miles south of South America.

"Block after block of ice is just tumbling and crumbling into the ocean," Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said in a telephone interview.

"The shelf is not just cracking off and a piece goes drifting away, but totally shattering. These kinds of events, we don't see them very often. But we want to understand them better because these are the things that lead to a complete loss of the ice shelf," Scambos added.

Green Ghostbusters Nab Hidden Power Leaks

By Alexis Madrigal
Wired.com

Check out this great article on a company, Sustainable Spaces, that performs home energy audits and helps make homes more energy efficient while improving indoor air quality (full disclosure - I am an investor in the company and also a board member. However, I was a happy client well before making an investment or joining the board!)

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Behind the drywall, your home's heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems are breathing. But chances are, they're not doing a perfect job, and their malfunctions and inefficiencies aren't just bad for your wallet, they're bad for the climate, too.

San Francisco-based startup Sustainable Spaces estimates that homeowners could reduce their energy costs by up to 50 percent by taking simple steps like fixing bad duct work and installing the right insulation. And since 21 percent of U.S. energy consumption goes into American homes, greater efficiency could help reduce the country's overall energy footprint, too.

Click on the link above for the full article!

Startup Says it Can Make Ethanol for $1 a Gallon, and Without Corn

Thanks to Frank P. for sending this!

By Chuck Squatriglia Wired.com

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Design engineer Mike Sura adjusts settings on Coskata's 150L bioreactor to make ethanol.
Photo: Tyler Mallory/General Motors

A biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon, and it wouldn't interfere with food supplies, company officials said.

Coskata, which is backed by General Motors and other investors, uses bacteria to convert almost any organic material, from corn husks (but not the corn itself) to municipal trash, into ethanol.

 "It's not five years away, it's not 10 years away. It's affordable, and it's now," said Wes Bolsen, the company's vice president of business development.

The discovery underscores the rapid innovation under way in the race to make cellulosic ethanol cheaply. With the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requiring an almost five-fold increase in ethanol production to 36 billion gallons annually by 2022, scientists are working quickly to reach that breakthrough.

"It signals just how hot the competition is right now," said David Friedman, research director of the clean vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "There are a lot of people diving into this right now, trying to figure out how to crack the nut. This increases my confidence that someone will do it."

Innovations That Will Change the Way We Live

Thanks to my friend Michael B. for this interesting piece!

For the second year in a row, IBM researchers and consultants have come up with five innovations that are going to change the way we live in the next five years. And we’re funding and working on technologies in our labs right now that will allow these amazing things to happen.

Imagine, if:

- You were able to tell your utility provider how much carbon output you were willing to live with each month and have them alert you if you were close to going over that amount

- Your car could alert you about a traffic jam, suggest an alternate route with less traffic and direct you the entire way

- You were able to know the exact source and make-up of the food products you purchase

- Your cell phone could allow your friends to shop with you, even if they are across the country or the world

- Your doctor could gain X-ray-like vision to view medical images and super sensitive hearing to find tiniest audio clue in your heartbeat.

1. It will be easy for you to be green and save money doing it

As the global population continues to expand, being personally responsible about how much energy we each use continues to grow increasingly important. Imagine receiving a phone call on your cell or office phone saying “It’s your air conditioner, you left me on and nobody’s home, press 1 to turn me off.” As data begins to run through our electrical wires – dishwashers, air conditioners, house lights and more will be connected directly to a "smart" electric grid, and using a cell phone or any Web browser to turn on or off power will be possible.

Smart grid technologies will make it easier for you to manage your personal carbon footprint. Your utility company will provide you with up-to-date reports of electrical usage, so you can easily monitor how much energy you are using and how much you are spending on your electricity. You will also be able to tell your electrical provider how much carbon output you are willing to live with each month and how much money you are willing to spend, and you will receive a warning when you are approaching those levels.

Intelligent grid technologies will also make it easier for utilities to provide you with the option to use green energy sources like wind and solar, and innovations in wind and solar will bring more cost-efficient, green energy options to a utility near you.

Many utilities around the world are already in the early stages of these innovations. IBM is working with companies like Centerpoint Energy in Texas and Oxxio in the Netherlands, that are providing smart meters to their customers. The ZigBee Alliance has developed devices that look like lamp timers and will enable you to turn appliances on and off via the Internet. And IBM and others are developing technologies to make solar equipment more affordable and efficient for consumers to use in the future.

Climate Panel Says Immediate Change Necessary

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

 

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VALENCIA, Spain, Nov. 17 — Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, describing climate change as “the defining challenge of our age,” released the final report of a United Nations panel on climate change here Saturday and called on the United States and China to play “a more constructive role.”

His challenge to the world’s two greatest greenhouse gas emitters came just two weeks before the world’s energy ministers meet in Bali, Indonesia, to begin talks on creating a global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

The United States and China are signatories to Kyoto, but Washington has not ratified the treaty and China, along with other developing countries, is not bound by its mandatory emissions caps.

“Today the world’s scientists have spoken, clearly and in one voice,” Mr. Ban said of the report, the Synthesis Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “In Bali, I expect the world’s policymakers to do the same.”

...

Members of the panel said their review of the data led them to conclude as a group and individually that reductions in greenhouse gases had to start immediately to avert a global climate disaster, which could leave island states submerged and abandoned, African crop yields down by 50 percent, and cause a 5 percent decrease in global gross domestic product.

The panel, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last month, said the world would have to reverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 to avert those problems and others.

“If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late,” said Rajendra Pachauri, a scientist and economist who heads the IPCC. “What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.”

Lake Superior is Shrinking, Warming

Average water temperature has risen 4.5 degrees since 1979
By John Flesher
The Associated Press Aug 7, 2007

As I stated in a previous post on this same subject, Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes and could hold all the water from all the other Great Lakes (Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario) combined with room to spare. Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world (by surface area) and contains 10% of all the earth's fresh surface water!

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MARQUETTE, Mich. - Deep enough to hold the combined water in all the other Great Lakes and with a surface area as large as South Carolina, Lake Superior's size has lent it an aura of invulnerability. But the mighty Superior is losing water and getting warmer, worrying those who live near its shores, as well as scientists and companies that rely on the lake for business.

The changes to the lake could be signs of climate change, although scientists aren't sure.

Superior's level is at its lowest point in eight decades and will set a record this fall if, as expected, it dips three more inches. Meanwhile, the average water temperature has surged 4.5 degrees since 1979, significantly above the 2.7-degree rise in the region's air temperature during the same period.

That's no small deal for a freshwater sea that was created from glacial melt as the Ice Age ended and remains chilly in all seasons.

How Scientists Figure Out How Long it Takes Trash to Decompose

Will My Plastic Bag Still Be Here in 2507?
How scientists figure out how long it takes your trash to decompose.
By Juliet Lapidos

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Thanks to Bruce W. for this article.

Starting July 1, most large grocery stores in the state of California will be legally required to recycle plastic shopping bags. In Europe, even stricter anti-plastic measures are gaining traction. Retailers in Modbury, England, for example, recently committed to an outright plastic-bag ban.

News reports have cited a statistic that the ubiquitous receptacles take 500 years to break down in landfills. How do we know?

Actually, we don't. Plastic bags have only been around for about 50 years, so there's no firsthand evidence of their decomposition rate. To make long-term estimates of this sort, scientists often use respirometry tests. The experimenters place a solid waste sample—like a newspaper, banana peel, or plastic bag—in a vessel containing microbe-rich compost, then aerate the mixture. Over the course of several days, microorganisms assimilate the sample bit by bit and produce carbon dioxide; the resultant CO2 level serves as an indicator of degradation.

Respirometry tests work perfectly for newspapers and banana peels. (Newspapers take two to five months to biodegrade in a compost heap; banana peels take several days.) But when scientists test generic plastic bags, nothing happens—there's no CO2 production and no decomposition. Why? The most common type of plastic shopping bag—the kind you get at supermarkets—is made of polyethylene, a man-made polymer that microorganisms don't recognize as food.

So, where does the 500-year statistic come from? Although standard polyethylene bags don't biodegrade, they do photodegrade. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, polyethylene's polymer chains become brittle and start to crack. This suggests that plastic bags will eventually fragment into microscopic granules. As of yet, however, scientists aren't sure how many centuries it takes for the sun to work its magic. That's why certain news sources cite a 500-year estimate while others prefer a more conservative 1,000-year lifespan. According to some plastics experts, all these figures are just another way of saying "a really, really long time."

Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says

Thanks to Eleanor B. for this article that takes a different viewpoint on global warming.

Kate Ravilious
for National Geographic News
February 28, 2007

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Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human-induced—cause, according to one scientist's controversial theory.

Earth is currently experiencing rapid warming, which the vast majority of climate scientists says is due to humans pumping huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Mars, too, appears to be enjoying more mild and balmy temperatures.

In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.

Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun.

"The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars," he said.

Solar Cycles

Abdussamatov believes that changes in the sun's heat output can account for almost all the climate changes we see on both planets.

Mars and Earth, for instance, have experienced periodic ice ages throughout their histories.

"Man-made greenhouse warming has made a small contribution to the warming seen on Earth in recent years, but it cannot compete with the increase in solar irradiance," Abdussamatov said.