Month: April 2024

Grow Food, Cut Carbon. Rock Weathering has Promise

Phys.org:

Enhanced rock weathering—a nature-based carbon dioxide removal process that accelerates natural weathering—results in significantly higher first year crop yields, improved soil pH, and higher nutrient uptake, according to a paper, published in PLOS ONE on 27 March.

Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) involves spreading finely crushed silicate rock such as basalt on agricultural land. It is a scalable and permanent climate technology with the potential to sequester gigatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Co-authored by scientists at UNDO, a leading enhanced rock weathering project developer, and Newcastle University, the article is the latest enhanced rock weathering (ERW) study assessing the impact on crops in a temperate climate.

Professor David Manning, Professor of Soil Science, Newcastle University School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, and co-author of the paper, commented, “The results of this trial give further scientific credibility for enhanced rock weathering and greatly improve its value proposition to farmers. Newcastle University is pleased to partner with UNDO. Our joint research into the co-benefits for farmers of basalt amendment is helping to pave the way for the widespread adoption of enhanced rock weathering in the agricultural community.”

Yit Arn Teh, Professor of Soil Science, Newcastle University, and co-author of the paper, said, “Independent bodies, such as the IPCC and UK Committee for Climate Change, have repeatedly highlighted the urgent need for climate action in the agriculture and land use sector to counter the effects of dangerous climate change. At the same time, the agricultural sector is under increasing pressure to meet key sustainability and environmental targets, against a backdrop of rising farm operating costs, driven by the cost of living crisis.

MIT Climate Portal:

Scientists have come up with several ideas to make rocks combine with carbon faster.
 
The simplest is to grind the rocks up, making a fine gravel or dust that reacts more easily with the air or water. Olivine, for instance, is a very common rock below the Earth’s crust, but a rare one on the surface because it weathers so quickly. In theory, olivine dust spread on beaches or in the ocean would break down in a matter of years, locking up carbon as it dissolves. (This might also help address ocean acidification, by taking up some of the excess carbon that is making the seas more acidic.)
 
Basalt is another candidate for this kind of enhanced weathering. In some experiments, farmland treated with ground basalt not only captured carbon, but also grew more crops as the basalt helped the soil hold onto needed nutrients.2
 
Other ideas for enhanced weathering try to speed up the chemical reactions involved. This might be done by adding chemical catalysts, or living things like bacteria or lichens—anything that eases the path for carbon to bind with elements in the rock.

Reuters:

Dubbed the mother rock, basalt is a volcanic mineral and one of the most abundant on the planet. This makes it the obvious one to scale, says Beerling, especially as it is so rich in both the elements needed to capture carbon – calcium and magnesium silicates – as well as nutrients such as phosphorus and potassium for crops.

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Climate Hits UK Food Supply

Guardian:

The UK faces food shortages and price rises as extreme weather linked to climate breakdown causes low yields on farms locally and abroad.

Record rainfall has meant farmers in many parts of the UK have been unable to plant crops such as potatoes, wheat and vegetables during the key spring season. Crops that have been planted are of poor quality, with some rotting in the ground.

The persistent wet weather has also meant a high mortality rate for lambs on the UK’s hills, while some dairy cows have been unable to be turned out on to grass, meaning they will produce less milk.

Agricultural groups have said the UK will be more reliant on imports, but similarly wet conditions in European countries such as France and Germany, as well as drought in Morocco, could mean there is less food to import. Economists have warned this could cause food inflation to rise, meaning higher prices at supermarkets.

Tom Bradshaw, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, said markets had “collapsed” as farmers fail to produce food in the punishing conditions. He said: “We’re going to be importing a lot more product this year.”

One major retailer said the wholesale price of potatoes was up 60% year on year as much of the crop had rotted in the ground.

Supplies of potatoes have also been affected by a 10% reduction in the area planted last year as farmers switched to less weather dependent and more financially secure crops. Industry insiders said they expected a further 5% fall in planting this year.

Jack Ward, chief executive of the British Growers Association, said: “There is a concern that we won’t ever have the volumes [of potatoes] we had in the past in the future.”

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Young Rural Conservatives Want Clean Energy

Key paper in key state puts finger on key issue.
I’ve talked to enough conservatives in rural areas to know that there is a lot of interest, and urgency, about rolling out clean energy, both as a way for farmers to diversify income, but also, increasingly, out of concern for climate change.

At a meeting of rural Dems this past weekend, my break out session was standing room only. Granted, not conservatives, but my two cents – rural residents might not be as generically Republican as some would like you to believe.

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

In Wisconsin, the biggest demographic conservative leaders rely on is rural voters. Without the cities of Madison and Milwaukee, rural conservatives would decide almost every election up and down the ballot. Even the next-largest cities have huge rural areas drawn into districts as local as the school board.

Rural conservatives wield huge amounts of political power, but how well are they actually understood – especially on contentious issues like climate and clean energy?

Earlier this year, my organization released polling that shows 71% of young rural conservative voters support a shift to clean energy. Those who did not favor shifting to clean energy were concerned about higher costs and economic impact, making clear communication the last step needed for this already-winning platform to have near-unanimous support. In Wisconsin and elsewhere, having strong clean energy policy positions and knowing how to speak about the economic benefits of clean energy is low-hanging fruit for conservatives.
Also important is that 68% of all young conservatives, rural or otherwise, support policy that balances economic and environmental concerns. While rural residents tend to be the most disenfranchised by many candidates’ silence on the topic, no one has to choose between targeting rural, suburban, or city voters during an election. There is broad support for a shift toward clean energy, but support is strongest among young people in conservatives’ largest voter block.

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Real Life Lorax Listening to the Oldest Trees

Music of the Trees.

Some will find this a bit woo, that’s fine. We need it all.
If only tree planting was all we needed to do to reverse climate change, that would be great, and for some, the “plant trees” meme is a substitute for doing the hard work of cutting heat trapping gases.
Research, however, (below) makes it clear that tree planting, while a critical component of climate response, must go along with rapidly cutting emissions.

I’ve not met Dave Milarch, but he’s got this operation going in Northern Michigan to preserve the genomes of the world’s largest and most long lived trees. Gotta say my hat’s off to that.

Inside Climate News:

Most climate-concerned people know that trees can help slow global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but a recent study published in the journal Science shows the climate cooling benefits of planting trees may be overestimated.

“Our study showed that there is a strong cooling from the trees. But that cooling might not be as strong as we would have thought,” Maria Val Martin, a senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. and the senior author of the research article, said.

Darker forests can warm the Earth because they reduce the albedo of the land they cover, meaning they absorb more sunlight and reflect less solar radiation back into space. So more heat is held by the Earth’s surface.

Continue reading “Real Life Lorax Listening to the Oldest Trees”

Texas Baking as El Nino Summer Winds Up

April heatwaves with temperatures approaching 100 becoming more common in Texas.
This is significant, because, historically spring is the time when power generators have some leeway to shut down plants and do much-needed regular maintainence. In recent years, heat waves have kept demands high, and repairs are deferred, sometimes with severe consequences, as in May of 2022, when 6 gas power plants shut down unexpectedly in the midst of record heat.

Indications that summer 24 is going to be, well, lit.

Houston Chronicle (paywall):

A Texas-sized streak of warm weather is ahead for the state this week ahead of the next cold front. This could result in a handful of locations across the Lone Star State hitting 100 degrees before the end of the week. 

The area between the Big Bend and Laredo will be most at risk of seeing 100 degrees this week. If you’re wondering, Laredo typically sees its first 100 degree reading on April 15. As early as it may seem to many, it isn’t that unheard of in the Rio Grande Valley and it certainly won’t be that unheard of this week. 

Forecast highs through Thursday generally land between 94 and 98 degrees for most. While this range does keep many below 100 degrees, it won’t be too much of a stretch to see backyard thermometers register 100. The region where 100 degree readings are more likely is in the Big Bend. Forecast highs there through Thursday will generally be between 100 and 110 degrees, with the warmest day likely to be Monday. 

A Tale of Two Counties

Clean Grid Alliance has posted a compilation of a number of my interviews with officials and farmers in two widely separated counties in Michigan.

Lenawee County, in southeast Michigan, turned down a wind project a dozen years ago, when local boards, under pressure from out of state goons and paranoid conspiracists, passed illegal “Exclusionary” ordinances.

At about the same time, one hundred and forty miles north, in Gratiot County, local officials and the community embraced wind development.

I made a comparison in how the two communities have done since then.

Gratiot County, Michigan

Nevada Back in Play as Nuclear Dumping Ground

If Y’all have decided that nuclear power is a good thing, y’all better get your mind straight that there has to be a place to store the waste.

Cave in the desert seems like a better place than say, on the shores of 20 percent of the world’s fresh water in the Great Lakes area. Just my two cents – but you guys work it out, ok?
Let me know what you decide.

Politico:

Lawmakers are reviving a zombie of a plan: storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, a long-contested site in Nevada about 100 miles from Las Vegas.

“Opposition has inhibited congressional appropriations and driven the executive branch to dismantle what has otherwise been a technically successful program,” House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said during a hearing Wednesday.

Discussion of Yucca Mountain as a permanent resting place for the nation’s 85,000 metric tons of nuclear waste (and counting) has lain dormant for years after local opposition and congressional gridlock effectively killed the plan, writes Nico Portuondo.

But as Republican and Democratic lawmakers find common ground around nuclear power as a way to combat climate change, the old problem of where to put the spent fuel is rearing its head.

Lawmakers have already allocated $2.7 billion to enrich uranium domestically. And a bill to jump-start next-generation reactors passed the House with bipartisan support earlier this year.

At the moment, nuclear power plants store their radioactive refuse on-site, near reactors, at more than 100 locations across the country.

The Biden administration has proposed finding interim storage sites that could serve as a backstop while Congress works to restart Yucca Mountain or finds another long-term site, a process that could take decades.

But even some Democratic lawmakers expressed doubt about the viability of interim storage sites without first securing a permanent repository. Plus, two states, Texas and New Mexico, have already outlawed the designation of such sites in their jurisdictions.

While Yucca Mountain remains the federal government’s official plan, Nevadans — whose state is a key presidential battleground — are dead set against it.

“The bottom line is this: Nevada does not produce nuclear waste, we have not consented to storing it in our backyard, and we should not have it forced upon us,” said Nevada Democratic Rep. Dina Titus.

Nuclear power may be a carbon-free alternative to burning fossil fuels, but it turns out no one is really excited to store its radioactive byproduct.

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Insurance is the Canary in the Climate Coal Mine

“Insurers are the Canary in the coal mine” becoming a catch phrase as experts grope for explanations of what is happening.
This is the kind of thing that crushes economies and creates chaos. Given current political realities in the United States, this is a dynamic that could tip a great Democracy into Authoritarianism.

The Hill:

Climate change and generations of U.S. housing and development policy are making homes, neighborhoods and entire municipalities riskier to insure, undermining the ability of Americans to live where they choose.

The current face of this crisis is a nationwide withdrawal by the insurance industry from regions threatened by wildfires and hurricanes, particularly along the Gulf Coast and California.

While there are other factors at play, this retreat is largely driven by the collision of climate change with long-term federal decisions to incentivize ever more expensive homes in riskier areas.

But insurance is just one manifestation of a larger problem, experts told The Hill, a canary in the coal mine offering a warning of more significant dangers rising out of sight.

And in a country whose economy is among the most unequal in the rich West, the cost of that danger falls increasingly on those least able to bear it. 

A record number of billion-plus dollar weather disasters hit the U.S. in 2023, with 28 such incidents costing nearly $100 billion collectively, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The previous record was set in 2020 at 22 disasters with 10-digit tabs.

The scale of these disasters, however, is only partly a result of climate change. In a world where America’s coastlines were dominated by wetlands and mangrove swamps, its conifer forests were burned regularly in low-intensity blazes and its housing stock was built with an eye toward resilience, these numbers would be far lower.

But state, federal and local governments have for decades incentivized both large-scale suppression of low-intensity fires and booming high-dollar coastal real estate, often on barrier islands. Those trends have left more people — and more insured home value — in the way of worsening fires, floods and storms. 

Continue reading “Insurance is the Canary in the Climate Coal Mine”