While Fjords are not particular common, and account for just 0.1% of the ocean surface area, they store 11-12% of the oceans carbon. Put differently, there are thought to be roughly 18 million tons of carbon stored in fjords around the world. To put it in perspective, that is a similar area to a speck of zest compared to the whole orange.
Continue reading “Another habitat which stores vast amounts of carbon needs to be added to our list: Fjords”Could fossil fuels be pushed out of electricity generation by 2035 simply by market forces?
A report from Carbon Tracker (a London based non-profit) points out that Solar and wind have the potential of creating thousands of Petawatt hours of electricity a year, while current electricity demands stand at just 27PWh.
More crazy still is the space that it would take to get all our electricity from Solar. It would take 450,000 square km, which sounds like an insane amount of land. However, this is just 0.3% of land and significantly less than the land currently given over to the Fossil fuel industry. Given that much of our energy needs will come from wind, this is likely to be significantly lower. Another analysis suggests just 0.2% of land for solar, with 0.5% covered in wind turbines.
Continue reading “Could fossil fuels be pushed out of electricity generation by 2035 simply by market forces?”Fusion breakthrough!
I wrote (rather poorly) back in October about fusion and its potential positives. In the middle of December, we had a breakthrough of incredible proportions.
For the first time, it took less energy to start fusion and sustain it, than was released in the reaction. This is obviously essential, as if it takes more energy to get the reaction to take place, than is generated you are using electricity not generating it.
Continue reading “Fusion breakthrough!”Easyjet has switched its green aviation focus from electric planes to hydrogen (though it is not giving up on battery planes)
Easyjet has switched its green aviation plans from electric to hydrogen. The aim is now to be flying a 200 person plane by 2035 on hydrogen. Previously, they were working with wright electric on a battery electric plane by 2030.
Currently, aviation emits roughly 2.5% of carbon emissions, and when taking into account non carbon effects, it accounts for roughly 3.5% of human global warming effects.
They have hastened to add, that this does not mean that they are giving up on battery electric, but that they wish to have multiple options. It is also recognized, that at least in the short-term, that while battery electric might be able to replace 80% of easyjets flight paths, the rest are to far for battery electric, unless power density takes a bigger leap forwards than currently expected.
In the meantime, inefficient aircraft are gradually being replaced. Of course this is good both for the environment and the company, as an inefficient plane uses more fuel to fly.
Hertz has found that electric cars cost 50-60% less money to maintain
With huge savings on electric car maintenance, Hertz has just put in a similar size order (to that for tesla) to GM. This will bring their worldwide number up to over quarter of a million electric cars to rent.
It is true that Hertz owns 550,000 electric vehicles around the world, so this move will bring them closer to about 50% of their cars.
Continue reading “Hertz has found that electric cars cost 50-60% less money to maintain”The worlds 3 most destructive industries are fossil fuels, farming and fisheries, yet all three are protected by (and subsidized) by governments
Unfortunately these 3 activities appear to be most responsible for collapse or incredible pressure on ecosystems across the globe.
Continue reading “The worlds 3 most destructive industries are fossil fuels, farming and fisheries, yet all three are protected by (and subsidized) by governments”Could we increase the yields of wheat 600 times through vertical farming?
Vertical farming is a new concept. By growing crops indoors under lights, the crops grow far faster and so can be harvested multiple times a year. Furthermore, by using artificial lights it is possible to have many layers of food.
Continue reading “Could we increase the yields of wheat 600 times through vertical farming?”If the UK only emits 1% of the worlds carbon emissions what can we do? well a lot
There is often an argument put forwards in the UK, that as the UK is just a small country we cannot do much when it comes to global warming. After all we only emit about 1% of the worlds emissions, right?
Well firstly, given the world has a population of 8 billion (roughly speaking) and we have a population of about 67 million, so we are only about 0.8% of the worlds population, yet are emitting 1% of emissions.
Continue reading “If the UK only emits 1% of the worlds carbon emissions what can we do? well a lot”Australia could have to find more than 1.2 trillion dollars to deal with climate disasters by 2060 even with rapid action, so why is the Australian government not doing their part?
This article is a few months old, which is why it is so encouraging that since it was released, the Australian people have risen up, and thrown out the government of Scott Morrison.
Why should he draw so much ire? He worked incredibly hard, while in office to both blame states for not doing the right thing, while at the same time making it as hard as possible. He made comments attacking many of the necessary changes that were going on.
Continue reading “Australia could have to find more than 1.2 trillion dollars to deal with climate disasters by 2060 even with rapid action, so why is the Australian government not doing their part?”Is it possible to buy beef from South America, and be sure your not supporting deforestation? A new study suggests not
It would appear that no matter what supermarkets are saying, South American beef is still encouraging deforestation. According to a new study 1.1 million cattle with boot directly from protected areas within in the rainforest, with a further 2.2 million cattle found to have spent at least some of their lives grazing in protected areas or on indigenous land.
It should be noted that this study largely stops taking you data in 2018. This is not because they got bored, but because at the beginning of 2019 Jair Bolsonaro olsonaro was elected and change the rules so they could not do the work they were doing.
As much as 70% of the Amazon rainforest deforestation has been entirely down to creating space for cattle grazing. While virtually every meat producer has promised not to source their meat from these areas, information appears to be kept intentionally lacking so that these meat producers can get away with using resources they have promised not to.
Quite apart from the high carbon footprint of consuming South American beef in Europe, it is clear that we cannot do, and be sure we are not contributing to the loss of the Amazon rainforest.
I should mention (as I have in the past) that my family have largely seems to eat beef. We have not gone vegetarian, but have found that replacing beef mince with turkey mince not only greatly reduces our carbon footprint but is almost indistinguishable after it has been cooked. If you must eat beef (unless something changes dramatically this is likely to always have an unacceptably high carbon footprint) at least eat British beef- not only should it have much lower travel carbon footprint, but there are no rainforests in the UK to be lost.