Sign up here to get this newsletter delivered to your inbox every Thursday. This week:
As Europe experiences extreme heat and drought, EU votes on electricity plan critics call ‘greenwashing’ Energy storage in sand Spotted BC: A cedar as wide as the cabin of a 747
As Europe experiences extreme heat and drought, EU votes on electricity plan critics call ‘greenwashing’
(Piero Cruciatti/Getty Images) In a week when Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years and at least seven people have died when a glacier in the Dolomites broke off and slid down a mountain, the European Parliament has voted to move forward with a plan that many warn is counterproductive. reducing carbon emissions and slowing global warming. Parliament has voted to back EU rules labeling investment in natural gas and nuclear power stations as “climate-friendly”, a decision that could shape energy and climate policy for years and comes as the effects of climate change are urgently felt throughout southern Europe. The new rules will allow investors to label and trade certain natural gas and nuclear power plants as green, a decision that exposes deep divisions within the European Union over how to fight climate change at a time when energy costs are soaring due to of Russia which restricts natural gas exports. to the EU. Proponents of green rating, which is supported by the natural gas and nuclear power industries, argue that it provides a less painful transition to renewables and reduces carbon burning when gas prices are high. But critics — from environmental activists and scientists to many investors — accuse the EU of backtracking on its energy promises and call the new label, which will come into effect in 2023, “greenwashing.” Austria and Luxembourg immediately announced plans to file legal complaints against the EU over the decision. The main concern is that new energy investment will be diverted away from renewables. “Accelerating decarbonisation is the right way to address both the energy crisis and the climate crisis,” said Michele Governatori, an energy expert at Milan-based independent think tank Ecco Climate, which advises on decarbonisation from carbon. “Any solution other than efficiency and renewables would take longer to implement to find new sources of energy than those solutions themselves.” While nuclear power is emission-free, experts say the plants can take years to develop, a timeline that is longer and more expensive than developing renewable energy systems. Meanwhile, natural gas may emit less carbon than coal, but it’s still a fossil fuel. The Governor expressed concern that fear of energy insecurity will lead to investments that make decarbonization more expensive without providing the desired stability. “What we are seeing at EU level and at government level is a rush to infrastructure, especially for fossil fuels, such as new gas lines and new gas ports,” he said. “[These] it would be … too late for next winter, which is the critical winter if we can’t rely on Russian gas, and it would continue to be costly for decades.” With a majority of MEPs voting to label nuclear power and natural gas “green” energy, much of Europe is in the middle of extreme heat that scientists say is caused by climate change. Temperatures across Italy have recently topped 40C. The Po River, which runs through northern Italy like a lifeline, providing clean hydroelectricity and irrigation for a third of Italy’s agricultural production, has dried up intermittently, with the his bed bare and exposed to the blazing sun. Salty seawater flows back into the river in the Adriatic delta, endangering vast fields of tomatoes, fruit and wheat. A dry winter has reduced the already shrinking glaciers in the Alps that feed the Po and other rivers, driving a huge glacier on the Marmolada peak of the Dolomites to rupture on Sunday. Rescue operations are ongoing for five hikers who are still missing after rocks, ice and snow hurled onto the mountain’s surface, killing at least seven hikers and injuring eight others. “This [is] they happen all over the world. Not only glaciers are breaking, but also mountains, due to the melting of the permafrost,” said Philipp Rastner, a glaciologist at the University of Zurich who grew up in the area and knows Marmolada well. He is part of a team of scientists he creates a global glacier inventorywith the long-term goal of monitoring them in high resolution and in real time. Rastner says you can measure how fast the ice is moving, but it’s hard to tell what’s happening inside the ice with elevated temperatures, which makes predicting ruptures difficult. Ultimately, he says, the only way to slow the melting of glaciers and the danger they pose is to reduce carbon emissions – a goal that, observers say, the EU vote has postponed. — Megan Williams
Reader comments
After reading our recent story on the corporate response to Canada’s single-use plastics banCharu Mittal wrote with this suggestion: “I wanted to suggest a story idea that I thought might be of interest to other people. As someone concerned about the cumulative effect of small, everyday things on our environment, I tried unsuccessfully to find information on what to do with the numerous plastic cards we had they end up collecting every year: credit/debit cards, membership cards, rewards cards, points cards, gift cards for all kinds of products and services, the list goes on…. “For me, these cards are another face of the omniscient plastic threat in our daily lives. Often, and especially in the case of sensitive cards, such as those related to banking transactions or linked to personal information, you simply do not know how to There are secure government facilities that do this?Shouldn’t banks (and indeed all stores) have systems in place to accept expired/used cards and find a way to safely dispose of them in a way that is also environmentally sensitive?Does the government intend regulate the use of such plastic cards in any way?” Thanks for that, Charu. It’s a nice idea for a story. We’ll take a closer look at it, but in the meantime, you might find it this part of 2019 by Emily Chung of interest.
Back issues of What on Earth? it’s right here.
CBC News recently launched a dedicated climate page, which you can find here here. Also, check out our radio show and podcast. A recent decision by the US Supreme Court means it has become much more difficult for federal agencies there to implement the kind of sweeping, transformative policies needed to reduce greenhouse emissions. But as What On Earth host Laura Lynch learns, many climate advocates still see a way forward. What the heck now airs on Sundays at 11am. ET, at 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador. Subscribe to your favorite podcast app or listen on demand at CBC Listen.
The big picture: Storing energy in sand
As we increase our use of renewable but intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar, battery storage becomes more vital. Science provides a wide range of possibilities — including pumped hydro and gravity storage — and to that list you can now add sand. How does sand store energy, you say? Well, if you drop it into an insulated steel tank, it actually becomes a pretty efficient thermal energy storage system. This is exactly what the Finnish company Vatajankowski did northwest of Helsinki. The tank in question is about four meters wide and seven meters high and contains a heat exchanger, which takes energy from external sources and heats the sand to 500 to 600 C. When the energy is needed, it is drawn through the heat exchanger. The company says this system can store eight megawatt hours of energy (or enough to power the average US home for about 10 months). Vatajankowski deploys this stored heat (along with excess heat from its data servers) to a local district heating system, a centralized method of providing heat to buildings and industrial processes through pipes (usually) containing hot or cold water. The company has said it plans to build facilities with around 20 gigawatt hours of energy storage and sand heated to 1,000C – possibly using decommissioned mine shafts. (Pasta Design/Shutterstock)
Hot and bothered: provocative ideas from around the web
Spotted BC: A cedar as wide as the cabin of a 747
(Submitted by Colin Spratt) A biologist found one of the widest trees ever recorded in BC Ian Thomas measured a western red cedar in North Vancouver between 4.8 and 5.8 meters in diameter. If Thomas’ preliminary measurements are correct, the behemoth he found Lynn Headwaters Regional Park it barely fit inside the cabin of a Boeing 747. The tree’s diameter at breast height (DBH) has yet to be officially verified and could end up being up to a meter short of his estimate of 5.8 meters, he said, depending on how it is measured on a steep, steep slope . Regardless of its exact size, there is no doubt that the massive tree is very, very old. “He came at the end of about 10 hours, Thomas told Gloria Makarenko, his hostess CPC At the shore, on Monday. “I spend a lot of time studying satellite maps and government data sets and just going through these incredible, endangered ancient forests that we’re so lucky to have, some of them, here in B.C. Thomas and his self-description”tree hunter“Colleague Colin Spratt named the tree they found in a grove of ‘primitive’ red cedars the North Shore Giant. The tree is lit Areas of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. Gabriel George, its director of conditions, lands and resources, said western red cedars have been used by his people for everything from canoes, clothing and buildings to ceremonial and medicinal applications. “Everything from the roots to the branches to…
