On the metaphysics of a footprint

In this week's edition of The New Yorker, reporter at large Michael Specter writes thoroughly about the nuances of carbon footprints.  Through stories of nascent action by corporations, economics as well as food, Specter both confirms and challenges our intuitions about a low carbon world.  It's certainly worth a read.  I've shared a short excerpt below.  You can find the full piece here.

The environmental burden imposed by importing apples from New Zealand to Northern Europe or New York can be lower than if the apples were raised fifty miles away. "In New Zealand, they have more sunshine than in the U.K., which helps productivity," Williams explained.  That means the yield of New Zealand apples far exceeds the yield of those grown in northern climates, so the energy required for farmers to grow the crop is correspondingly lower.  It also helps that the electricity in New Zealand is mostly generated by renewable sources, none of which emit large amounts of CO2.  Researchers at Lincoln University, in Christchurch, found that lamb raised in New Zealand and shipped eleven thousand miles by boat to England produced six hundred and eighty-eight kilograms of carbon-dioxide emissions per ton, about a fourth the amount produced by British lamb.  In part, that is because pastures in New Zealand need far less fertilizer than most grazing land in Britain (or in many parts of the United States).  Similarly, importing beans from Uganda or Kenya--where the farms are small, tractor use is limited, and the fertilizer is almost always manure--tends to be more efficient than growing beans in Europe, with its reliance on energy-dependent irrigation systems.

China

Lia and I had a wonderful opportunity to meet a group of honors students from Zhejiang University in China through the PCC outreach program. Subsequent interaction with one of these students provides valuable insight that I wish to share:

The environment problem is not prevented from reaching us. The only problem is, it’s not highly emphasized in the public. We can get access to all kinds of information easily. In news report, there’s something about global warming issue almost every day. I guess, it’s just the lack of awareness of how severe the problem is that stops people from taking the issue seriously and doing something to change the situation. Though we saw the issue, we don’t really FEEL the issue in China actually. Another important reason from my perspective is that, in China people tend to follow a ‘up-to-down’ behavior pattern. That is to say, if there’s a national policy or some national leader’s speech, ordinary citizens started to think about what they could do to follow the trend. We’re trying to create a ‘down-to-up’, grass-root like pattern these years. But it’s still just on its way. In China, it’ll be more efficient to convince the high level authority that they should begin to do something about this vital problem.

International interaction and collaboration represents an incredible opportunity in the climate sciences and I was encouraged to see students taking the issue to heart.

Robert

Ocean Acidification

Dr. Feeley's presentation entitled 'Science on the Cutting Edge' during the Focus The Nation inspired me to brainstorm potential solutions for the ocean acidification problem. The "do nothing" or "stop emitting and do nothing else" approaches to the ocean will still result in environmental catastrophe and tremendous strain upon the 1 billion people worldwide who depend upon coral-dependent species worldwide (to mention just one of the problems). In the long-run, the dissolution of land-based limestone (CaCO3) helps balance the natural emission sources of carbon dioxide limestone reserves are also quite copious. Thus, the question is whether there is a way to help control acidification by "seeding" regions of the ocean. My research on the subject turned up this PPT presentation:

Mitigating the Atmospheric CO2 Increase and Ocean Acidification by Adding Limestone Powder to Upwelling Regions

Key points:
1) Adding limestone to upwelling regions will increase the pH of the ocean.
2) The effectiveness decreases with scale (reaching a limit).
3) More CO2 would be drawn down from the atmosphere.
4) Carbonate may be added on a small-scale more or less continuously.

Question for the chemical oceanographers: If you reach the limit in the second point, would the limestone "dust" just settle out? What are potential "unintended consequences to the local upwelling ecosystems?

I don't think that we can look for a single "solution" and the larger the scale of any potential experiment, the greater the potential consequences of failure. Thus, I like the idea of myriad small-scale solutions.

Following his lecture, Dr. Feeley mentioned that cement manufacturers are using a similar concept to neutralize the cement tailing by-product from cement manufactures by dissolving CO2 (emitted in the production process) and water (presumably used as a coolant). The cement manufacturing industry currently comprises 1.5% of the CO2 emissions nation-wide. This would greatly reduce two problems at once, if it were possible. I will post on this topic soon...

Robert

Idea Generator

This is an interesting idea and potentially a good way to get your voice heard on any topic. In this particular case, the economy is the focus, but everything connects...I think science needs more voices in the media (whether it be directly related to science or not).

Idea Generator