Earth Wise

Large amounts of metal in soil are generally bad for plants.  But there are about 700 species of plants

that thrive in metal-rich soils.  These

plants don’t just tolerate minerals from soil in their bodies but actually seem

to hoard them to ridiculous levels.

In areas where soils are naturally rich in nickel, typically in the

tropics and Mediterranean basin, plants have either died off or have adapted to

become nickel loving.  Slicing open a

tree with this adaptation produces a neon blue-green sap that is actually

one-quarter nickel, which is far more concentrated than the ore that typically

feeds commercial nickel smelters.

A group of researchers from the University of Melbourne and other

institutions is investigating whether this phenomenon is not just interesting

but might also be of real commercial value. 

They established a plot of land in a rural village in Borneo and have

been harvesting growth from nickel-hyper accumulating plants.  Every six to twelve months, a farmer shaves

off one foot of growth from these plants and either burns or squeezes the metal

out.  After a short purification, they

end up with about 500 pounds of nickel citrate, potentially worth thousands of

dollars on international markets.

Phytomining – extracting minerals from hyper-accumulating plants –

cannot fully replace traditional mining techniques.  But the technology could enable areas with

toxic soils to be made productive and might allow mining companies to use

plants to clean up their former mines and waste while actually collecting some

revenue.

There are other plants that suck up cobalt, zinc, and similarly

crucial metals.  With growing demand for

metals, perhaps it is time to harvest them on the farm.

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Down on the Farm That Harvests Metal From Plants

Photo courtesy of the University of Queensland.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A growing number of major corporations are making promises on climate and the promises are getting more ambitious and for faster action.  More companies are disclosing their carbon emissions and more of those companies have emissions reduction targets. 

There has also been an acceleration in the rate at which companies set

so-called science-based targets, which are specific, measurable carbon

reduction goals that align the company with the Paris Agreement.  Among the hundreds of companies with such

targets are Coca-Cola, Nike, Best Buy, Walmart, and Hilton Hotels.  According to one analysis, the number of

Fortune 500 companies with concrete, ambitious carbon targets quadrupled in the

past four year to 23%.

Environmental advocates have been pressuring companies for decades,

but companies seem to be far more proactive now despite the fact that the U.S.

government has largely dropped the ball on climate issues.

The reasons include the fact that the effects of climate change are

becoming clearer to companies. 

Wildfires, rising sea levels, droughts and other aspects of the crisis

both make headlines and affect business operations.

Meanwhile, solar and wind energy have gotten significantly cheaper,

making it more attractive for companies to shift away from fossil fuels.

At the same time, investors are increasingly asking companies to act

on climate issues.  Consumers, employees,

and the general public are increasingly demanding action and even children are

adding to the pressure to act.

Making these commitments is one thing; following through on them and sticking to them is another.  There are real concerns that there is a great deal of green-washing going on among companies trying to project a favorable image.  In any case, if companies really want to lead on climate, they need to put their money where their mouths are.

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Better Late Than Never? Big Companies Scramble To Make Lofty Climate Promises

Photo, posted June 22, 2016, courtesy of Mike Mozart via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

In a world where many go hungry in the context of rapidly changing environments, many experts contend that alternative food sources will be necessary to solve global food security problems.  So-called novel food sources are central to this conversation, defined as foods with no history of consumption in a region – or perhaps anywhere.

Three popular examples are lab-grown meat, insect farming, and seaweed

aquaculture.  Each of these offer

opportunities as well as challenges.

Lab-grown meat can refer to actual animal tissues raised in vats as well as the increasingly common cultured plant products made to resemble meat.  Lab-grown meat faces push back from the livestock industry that contends it should not be labeled as any kind of meat. While results to date are positive, barriers still remain including concerns over product taste, healthiness, and cost.  And while less land- and water-intensive than conventional livestock, cultured meat production is still energy intensive.

Insects do form a significant part of diets across the globe but have

yet to be embraced in any substantial way in western cultures.  Nutritionally, numerous species of insects

are rich in key proteins, micronutrients, and minerals.  But the “yuck factor” is a big barrier to

cross.

Seaweed is a long-established part of many East Asian diets and has many potential dietary uses.  Several selectively bred varieties of seaweed supply a range of valuable nutrients.  Growing seaweed does not tax freshwater and terrestrial resources.  But intensively cultivated seaweeds would have potential negative effects on local marine ecosystems.

There is no single solution to complex issues like food security.  Novel foods may very well form part of the

solution to a growing food crisis.

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Insects, seaweed and lab-grown meat could be the foods of the future

Photo, posted March 12, 2009, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Green products are environmentally-friendly products with features that are less harmful to people and the planet.  For instance, green products may require fewer resources to produce, consume less energy, contain non-toxic ingredients, or create fewer emissions.  Some examples include biodegradable waste bags, LED light bulbs, low-flow shower heads, organic cotton clothing, and reusable coffee cups and water bottles.  

But according to new research from two universities in the United Kingdom, companies looking to promote their latest environmentally-friendly product should actually downplay its greenness if they want consumers to buy it.

The study, by researchers from the University of East Anglia and the

University of Leeds, found advertising that highlights a product’s green

attributes can lead consumers to associate it with weak performance.  The findings, which were recently published

in the Journal of Advertising, indicate that companies should downplay a

product’s green qualities and instead promote it on more traditional aspects.

An example of these two distinct advertising strategies – green

emphasis versus green understatement – can be found in the auto industry.  Car manufacturer Toyota prominently

highlights the low emissions and low fuel consumption features of the Prius,

employing what the researchers term as ‘explicit signals’.  In contrast, automaker Tesla reduces the

prominence of its green attributes, focusing instead on its cars’ acceleration,

handling, and other performance-related characteristics.  This is known as the ‘implicit signals’

marketing approach.

After conducting two experiments, the research team found that the

implicit, rather than explicit, marketing approach about greenness leads to

higher performance evaluations and purchase intent.

Consumers appear more likely to engage in pro-social actions when it’s accompanied by some form of personal benefit. 

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Highlighting product greenness may put consumers off buying

Photo, posted December 21, 2019, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

According to new research from scientists at the University of Hawaii Manoa, the warming and acidifying oceans could wipe out nearly all existing coral reef habitats by 2100.  In fact, the researchers predict that 70-90% of coral reefs will disappear over the next 20 years alone as a consequence of climate change and pollution. 

Some organizations are attempting to save coral habitats by transplanting live corals from labs to reefs.  The idea is that the new young corals will help revive the reefs.  But after mapping where such restoration efforts would be most successful, the research indicates that there will be little to no suitable habitat remaining for corals by 2100.  Small portions of Baja California and the Red Sea are two of the sites that could remain viable by 2100, although neither are ideal due to their proximity to rivers.  Sea surfaces temperature and acidity are two of the most important factors in determining the viability of a site for restoration.  

Warming ocean waters stress corals, which cause

them to expel the symbiotic algae living inside them.  This turns the often colorful corals white –

an event known as coral bleaching. 

Bleached corals are not dead corals, but they are at a higher risk of

dying.  These coral bleaching events are

becoming more frequent as a result of the changing climate. 

The projected increases in human pollution will only play a minor

role in the future elimination of coral reef habitats.  Ironically, that’s because humans have

already caused such extensive damage to coral reefs that there aren’t many

locations left to impact.

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Warming, acidic oceans may nearly eliminate coral reef habitats by 2100

Photo, posted September 28, 2009, courtesy of Matt Kieffer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Methanol is a valuable chemical used as fuel in the production of countless products. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that is produced by countless industrial processes.  Carbon dioxide can be converted into methanol, which is one way all that CO2 can be put to good use instead of causing harm. 

In research recently published in Science, chemical engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a process that converts CO2 to methanol in a more efficient way by using a highly effective separation membrane they produced.  

The chemical reaction responsible for the transformation of CO2 into methanol also produces water, which severely restricts the continued reaction. The Rensselaer team has found a way to filter out the water as the reaction is happening, without losing other essential gas molecules. 

They produced a membrane made up of sodium ions and zeolite crystals that was able to carefully and quickly permeate water through small pores — known as water-conduction nanochannels — without losing gas molecules. The sodium ions effectively only allow water to go through. When water was effectively removed from the process, the team found that the chemical reaction was able to happen very quickly. By removing the water, the equilibrium shifts, which means more CO2 will be converted and more methanol will be produced.  

The team is now working to develop a scalable process and a startup

company that would allow this membrane to be used commercially to produce high

purity methanol.  This membrane could also be used to improve a number of other reactions. 

In industry there are many reactions limited by water and this RPI membrane could be an important enhancement for many of them. 

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Water-Conducting Membrane Allows Carbon Dioxide To Transform into Fuel More Efficiently

Photo courtesy of RPI.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Many studies have shown, to no great surprise, that affluent lifestyles lead to larger carbon footprints. Households in Switzerland enjoy a high standard of living and a team of researchers there has been studying the consumption and travel habits of Swiss citizens to better understand the impact of various factors on carbon footprint. Key factors include household composition and income, and whether the households are in the city or the countryside – even though, in the end, people’s lifestyles do not differ greatly from one environment to another. 

A team of researchers at EPFL’s School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering analyzed data from Switzerland’s household budget survey for 2008, 2011 and 2014.  They combined that data with an environmentally extended input-output analysis to assess households’ carbon footprints by measuring their direct and indirect emissions.

Overall, households in the countryside have larger carbon footprints

than those in the city, mainly because they travel more and use more energy in their homes. But urban

households have larger carbon footprints than their rural counterparts when it

comes to food, clothing, cultural activities and air travel.  

A household’s composition directly influences its carbon footprint. A

two-person household has the largest per-capita carbon footprint, and it falls

as the size of the family grows since many of the same resources are shared by more people. 

Income levels play an important role.  People

consume without much thought because they can afford to and enjoy doing it. But there is a

trend towards people becoming more conscious of their levels of consumption and

trying to be more responsible in Switzerland.  Overall consumption

has actually declined over the years studied.  

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Our carbon footprint is highly impacted by how we live

Photo, posted December 19, 2017, courtesy of Alexander Kozik via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

About 1% of the world’s population is dependent on desalinated water to meet daily needs, but water scarcity is a growing problem that experts believe will affect 14% of the world’s population within the next five years.

Desalination takes much more energy than, for example, transporting

fresh water over large distances.  In

general, desalination costs are much higher than those associated with fresh

water, but beyond costs, freshwater is simply not always available.

Researchers at MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China have

developed a completely passive solar-powered desalination system that could

provide more than 1.5 gallons of fresh drinking water per hour for every square

meter of solar collecting area.   Such a

system could provide an efficient, low-cost water source for coastal areas that

are off the grid.

The system uses multiple layers of flat solar evaporators and

condensers topped with transparent aerogel insulation.  The key to its efficiency is the way it uses

each of its multiple stages to desalinate water.  At each stage, heat released by the previous

stage is harnessed instead of wasted. 

The proof-of-concept device, which was tested on an MIT building

rooftop, produced more than twice as much water as the record amount produced

by any previous passive solar-powered desalination system.

The researchers plan further experiments aimed at optimizing the choice of materials and configurations and to test the system under realistic conditions.  The hope is to have a technology that can play a role in alleviating water scarcity in parts of the world where electricity is scarce, but seawater and sunlight are abundant.

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Simple, solar-powered water desalination

Photo courtesy of MIT/researchers.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

One-third of all food produced is wasted, which turns out to be a major contributor to carbon emissions.  Most of the carbon emissions associated with food waste are related to the production of the food.  Reducing waste would trickle through the supply chain over time and ultimately less food would be produced.

A study at Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business looked at a

particular strategy for reducing food waste’s environmental impact:  opening more grocery stores.

It turns out that the more stores there are, the lower food waste will

be.  Cornell Professor Elena Belavina

created a model that incorporates data from the grocery industry, the U.S.

Census Bureau, and other academic studies.

When applied to Chicago, which is typical of many American cities, the

model predicts that by adding just three or four markets within

four-square-mile area, food waste would be reduced by 6 to 9 percent.  This would achieve an emissions reduction

comparable to converting more than 20,000 cars from fossil fuels to electric

power.  According to the model, not only

would food waste be reduced, but so would grocery bills.  By trimming food waste and travel costs,

consumers would spend up to 4% less.

Most big cities are well below their ideal density of grocery stores

that would minimize food waste. When consumers can purchase perishable goods

nearby, they shop more often but buy less each time.  There is less food sitting at home, so there

is a much lower likelihood that food will spoil.

New York City, which has an abundance of produce stands and neighborhood markets, comes close to having the ideal density of markets.  Basically, the way to reduce food waste is to bring less groceries home.

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Better access to groceries could reduce food waste, emissions

Photo, posted March 22, 2009, courtesy of Nick Saltmarsh via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Rising sea levels and the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are leaving observable effects on beaches, cliffs, and coastal infrastructures all around the world.  But a new study suggests that the impact of climate change on coastal plant communities needs more attention. 

According to research recently published in the journal Annals of Botany, coastal plants are a critical element of global sea defense.  But coastal plants are increasingly under threat from flooding, erosion, and other human-induced effects of climate change.  Habitats like salt marshes, mangrove forests, sand dunes, and kelp beds make important contributions  to coastal protection.

The research was led by scientists from the University of Plymouth, in

conjunction with researchers at Utrecht University and Manchester Metropolitan

University.

The study follows a recent assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which found that anthropogenic climate change poses a severe threat to estuaries and coastal ecosystems.  

Conservative estimates of the capital investments needed to combat

rising seas and intensifying storms run into the hundreds of billions of

dollars in the coming decades.  However,

coastal vegetation could offer a dynamic, natural, and relatively low-cost

defense strategy at a fraction of the cost when compared with the cost of so-called

hard defenses like concrete walls and barriers. 

According to the research team, identifying the key species and habitats for coastal defense and how coasts can be protected and promoted is critical.  More long-term monitoring is also needed in order to better understand and predict where and how storms and other effects of climate change will impact coastal ecosystems. 

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The gathering storm: optimizing management of coastal ecosystems in the face of a climate-driven threat

Losing coastal plant communities to climate change will weaken sea defences

Photo, posted September 14, 2018, courtesy of Dennis Jarvis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.