Climate change innovation – Page 13

May 18, 2021July 1, 2022

Agrovoltaics : what what is it and why are they interesting

There is often a concern that advances in efficiency and green technologies use more land and more resources, with these two processes that is not the case.

Agrovoltaics involve putting solar panels above food crops. Food crops using a very small portion of the light that falls on them, and as such can often grow very effectively under solar panels so long as they don’t cut off too much of the light. Furthermore, while putting solar panels a metre or less of the ground is cheaper, these raised solar panels have a similar cost to roof based solar.

A wide range of crops can be grown under solar panels

However there are also advantages for the the plants growing underneath. The amount of water evaporation is vastly lower, allowing more water hungry plants to grow well with less. The lower temperature also benefits many of the plant species.

Added to this of course is the ability for the farmer to sell megawatts of electricity each year. If enough farmers entered into this business and we invested in enough battery to store it for use in the evening and at night, we would eliminate the need for gas and coal powered electricity. Perhaps supporting rollout of Silvopasture could end the need for farmers to need additional finance from the government.

In the next article I will look at Silvopasture.

May 13, 2021July 1, 2022

Lab grown meat saw funding increase 6 fold during 2020

Studies over the last few years show that 80% of of people are open to eating meat grown in bioreactors.

Lab grown meat is still meat, it just does not need to be grown in the animal

Why is this good news? Well one of the important advances with this meat is that it is thought that it could be created with a similar carbon footprint to lettuce.

May 12, 2021July 1, 2022

Natural regeneration of the rainforest – what does this tell us

A recent study has showed that over the last 20 years, an area of rainforest the size of France has naturally regenerated.

This is not an insignificant area of land, consisting of 59 million hectares (half a million square kilometres).

The Atlantic forest is regenerating in places

May 2, 2021July 1, 2022

Joined up effort to fight habitat loss and pandemics together

I have spoken repeatedly over the last year, about the positive impact of the epidemic. The loss of life has been horrible, and many people have suffered significant losses of different kinds. One of the advantages it is given though is a link between saving the remaining wildernesses on planet earth, and our own long-term health and wellbeing. Experts have once again stated the advantage of both fighting habitat loss and degradation at the same time as making sure that pandemics do not spread around the world again.

The idea that we might be the last generation on earth to have rainforests left to explore disgusts me. Perhaps the health of the worlds human population might give a reason to protect it

April 30, 2021July 1, 2022

Republicans and fox news have decided that cut Biden has promised to make will mean 4 pounds of meat a year

The need for America to cut it’s carbon footprint by 50% in the next decade under biden’s plan has been attacked to absurd proportions.

Republicans have been arguing against doing something about climate change for decades. It should therefore be borne in mind that the speed of cuts necessary now has been made necessary by previous republican governments. Now this has to be remembered that this did not come from something Biden said, and in there more honest moments some republicans will admit this, unfortunately for the time being though it is clear that the noisy republicans are all in with this fake attack.

Here is an explanation of the problem

April 29, 2021July 1, 2022

A flurry of pledges have been made as the climate summit gets underway. Carbon cuts – but can we deliver?

USA has promised to cut its emissions in half by 2030, EU will cut its emissions by 55%, and the UK will cut its emissions by 78% by 2035

April 5, 2021March 23, 2021

Using sewage to heat homes?

Thames water in London UK is hoping to use excess heat from sewage treatment plants to provide the warmth needed for 2000 homes in Kingston-upon-Thames.

What normally happens, is that once the water has been fully treated, it is returned to the river. The problem with this, is that the water is at a higher temperature than the river, and this is not good for its ecosystem.

April 2, 2021March 23, 2021

Could many hills in the UK become the batteries of tomorrow?

A new system can transform thousands of hills in the UK into large batteries. A team of engineers have developed a system which would allow Hydropower to store and release power within gently sloping hills and without the huge dams currently needed.

The idea of these small hydropower systems, is that we could build many of these tiny dams for far less than just a few large ones. More importantly, it would come with far less negative issues to those that come with historic large dams (for instance the proposed dam which threatens the future of 8th great ape species the Tapulani Orangutan).

March 31, 2021March 23, 2021

Paris agreement for nature?

At the beginning of January an new agreement was signed by 50 countries who pledged to protect 30% of the earths land and oceans. The intention of this agreement is to stem the flow of extinctions that human activity has been causing for the last few centuries.

The hope is that this agreement can form the basis of a larger agreement at the UN, building on the early commitments from nations such as Nigeria Pakistan Costa Rica Canada and many more.

March 25, 2021March 23, 2021

HSBC is voting on stopping funding coal? about time, but not action for 19 years

Over the last few years it has become increasingly clear that conservationists approach to fossil fuel companies were not working.

The problem is that there is a great deal of money to be made from fossil fuels. Companies like tesla hint at a world where this ceases to be the case, and the speed that the electric car market is growing, is incredibly fast. Indeed many people have commented on the fact that the growth curve of electric cars is clearly following the curve of many other disruptions from computers to mobile phones.