GEOLOGY WITH JEFF SIMPSON
  • Home
  • GLG101IN
  • GLG110IN
  • GLG280/281
  • GEONEWS
  • JEFF
  • Sustainable Building Project
  • UDP

Path to recovery of ozone layer passes a significant milestone

9/1/2022

 
An annual analysis of air samples collected at remote sites around the globe that is tracking a continued decline in the atmospheric concentration of ozone-depleting substances shows the threat to the ozone layer receding below a significant milestone in 2022, NOAA scientists have announced.  In early 2022, the overall concentration of ozone-depleting substances in the mid-latitude stratosphere had fallen just over 50 percent back to  levels observed in 1980, before ozone depletion was significant. This slow but steady progress over the past three decades was achieved by international compliance with controls on production and trade of ozone-depleting substances in the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.  - NASA

Reintroducing bison results in long-running and resilient increases in grassland diversity

9/1/2022

 
Large animals (megafauna) have cascading effects on populations, communities, and ecosystems. The magnitude of these effects is often unknown because native megafauna are missing from most ecosystems. We found that reintroducing bison—a formerly dominant megafauna and the national mammal of the United States—doubles plant diversity in a tallgrass prairie. These plant communities have few nonnative species and were resilient to an extreme drought. Domesticated megafauna (cattle), which have replaced native herbivores in many grasslands, produced less than half of this increase in plant species richness. Our results suggest that many grasslands in the Central Great Plains have substantially lower plant biodiversity than before widespread bison extirpation. Returning or “rewilding” native megafauna could help to restore grassland biodiversity. - PNAS

Micro hydropower system for building applications, usable with solar

9/1/2022

 
apanese startup Yumes Frontier has developed a micro-hydroelectric power generation system that uses small amounts of water in factories, buildings, and water purification plants. “Our system was conceived to utilize unused water pipes and is aimed at reducing electricity bills in commercial and industrial buildings,” a company spokesperson told pv magazine. “The system can be used in different kinds of commercial and industrial buildings, provided a few conditions are met. For example, a minimum flow rate of 4L/s and a water drop from a height of more than 4 meters. And if these conditions are met, it may even be installed in residential buildings or houses. - PV Magazine
Picture

The world’s largest offshore wind farm is about to officially launch

8/21/2022

 
The 1.32 GW Hornsea Two will dethrone the 1.2 GW Hornsea One as the largest operating offshore wind farms in the world. It’s 462 square kilometers (178 square miles) in size, and it will power more than 1.3 million homes. Hornsea Two is off the east coast of England and was developed and is owned by Danish wind giant Ørsted. It features 165 Siemens Gamesa 8 megawatt (MW) turbines; most of the wind turbines’ blades were manufactured at Siemens Gamesa’s factory in Hull. All of Hornsea Two’s wind turbines are now commercially operational. The entire project will be fully commissioned after the final reliability runs are completed, and that’s expected later this month. - Electrek
Picture

Going Beyond Recycling: Net-Zero Plastics (Article + Video - 2:32)

8/21/2022

 
Governments and corporate net-zero commitments are pushing the petrochemicals industry to cut its emissions by 2050. Despite facing a more complex decarbonization path than any other sector, petrochemicals players’ net-zero targets cover more of the global manufacturing capacity than other heavy emitters like steel and cement. Electrification and carbon capture and storage are likely to play a central role in reducing emissions from the production of high-value chemicals, or HVCs, which are key feedstocks used to make plastics and many manufactured goods. - BNEF

Are EV Batteries Recyclable?

8/21/2022

 
As electric vehicle (EV) sales continue to increase, questions about how these cars and their batteries will be disposed of have been top of mind for current owners, future buyers, policymakers, and many experts in the automotive industry. EVs are a newer technology, and their batteries require different end-of-life processing than gasoline vehicles. Luckily, lithium-ion battery recycling research and development has been going on for years and there is an existing and growing repurposing and recycling system in North America for these components. The map below is from recent research that explores the network of companies already recycling and repurposing batteries – these include recycling companies such as Redwood Materials, Li-Cycle, and Ascend Elements. The industry is quickly growing capacity for future recycling, with planned facilities in Nevada, New York, and Georgia, to name just a few. - UCS

How The Inflation Reduction Act Will Spur a New Climate Tech Ecosystem

8/21/2022

 
On the surface, the Inflation Reduction Act that President Biden signed into law on Tuesday may sound like a massive government spending program. Indeed, it promises to put nearly $370 billion in federal funding behind the energy transition. But, if you dig deeper, the IRA is less about the power of government spending and more about the power of the private sector. The tax incentives, loans, and grants at its center are all intended to nudge the private sector to go faster in deploying existing technologies like wind and solar while also advancing future technologies. “The path they went down is 100% the ‘sweeten the deal path,’” says Karen Karniol-Tambour, chief investment officer for sustainability at Bridgewater. “Let’s just give lots of incentives to make the green stuff really competitive.” - Time

Four Ways the Inflation Reduction Act Speeds Shift to a Cleaner, More Affordable Energy Future

8/21/2022

 
The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a once-in-a-career opportunity, permanently shifting the course of both the US economy and global climate to a better future. And it represents the culmination of decades of work by RMI — our experts and analysis played a direct role advancing key provisions — along with countless other NGOs, businesses, communities, scientists, and policymakers The full implications of the nearly 800-page bill continue to be assessed. But early modeling suggests its incentives will drive dramatic emission reductions: at least 40 percent by 2030, just shy of US commitments to lower emissions by half in that time. - RMI

Boston aims to eliminate fossil fuels in new buildings

8/21/2022

 
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced Tuesday her intent to file legislation that potentially would allow for the elimination of fossil fuels in new construction or major renovations, following in the footsteps of regulations in New York City, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The city’s pursuit of such building standards follows Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, R, signing a major climate bill last week. The state law establishes a pilot program that will allow 10 municipalities to create local policies restricting the use of fossil fuels in new construction projects. Those policies intend to spur the adoption of cleaner technologies to power buildings, such as electric heat pumps. - Smart Cities Dive

As Oceans Warm, Marine Life Faces Extinction Levels That Rival Dinosaurs' End

5/1/2022

 
By 2100, we could be heading towards a loss of life in our oceans that rivals some of the largest extinction events in Earth's history if we don't continue to tackle the climate catastrophe, new modeling warns. But "it is not too late to enact the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions needed to avoid a major extinction event," Princeton geoscientists Justin Penn and Curtis Deutsch explain in their paper. Using modeling calibrated against ancient fossil records, they predict the consequences of runaway climate change on marine animals and provide a plausible explanation for an enduring ocean mystery in the process. - Science Alert

A Quiet Revolution: Southwest Cities Learn to Thrive Amid Drought

4/29/2022

 
In the rolling hills around San Diego and its suburbs, the rumble of bulldozers and the whine of power saws fill the air as a slew of new homes and apartments rise up. The region is booming, its population growing at a rate of about 1 percent a year. This, in spite of the fact that Southern California, along with much of the West, is in the midst of what experts call a megadrought that some believe may not be a temporary, one-off occurrence, but a recurring event or even a climate change-driven permanent “aridification” of the West. The drought is so bad that last year federal officials ordered cuts to water provided to the region by the Colorado River for the first time in history. Water officials in San Diego, though, say they are not worried. “We have sufficient supplies now and in the future,” said Sandra Kerl, general manager of the San Diego Water Authority. “We recently did a stress test, and we are good until 2045” and even beyond. - Yale Environment350
Picture

The Power of Big Oil

4/19/2022

 
FRONTLINE examines the fossil fuel industry’s history of casting doubt and delaying action on climate change. This three-part series traces decades of missed opportunities and the ongoing attempts to hold Big Oil to account. - Frontline
Picture

How ending mining would change the world

4/18/2022

 
"If you can't grow it, you have to mine it" goes the miner's credo. The extraction of minerals, metals and fuels from the ground is one of humankind's oldest industries. And our appetite for it is growing. Society is more dependent on both greater variety and larger volumes of mined substances than ever before. If you live in a middle-income country, every year you use roughly 17 tonnes of raw materials – equivalent to the weight of three elephants and twice as much as 20 years ago. For a person in a high-income country, it is 26 tonnes – or four and a half elephants' worth.- BBC
Picture

Arizona faces a reckoning over water

3/25/2022

 
The question now, as it has been since 1911 when the first big reservoir was completed to supply Phoenix with water, is one of longevity. Can this desert bounty be sustained for another 100 years, or even another 50? That question is more urgent and more relevant than ever. Climate change is disrupting the rules of the development game. Drought and extreme heat are emptying rivers and reservoirs, fallowing tens of thousands of acres of farmland, forcing thousands of homeowners to secure water from trucks and not their dead wells, and pushing Arizona ever closer to the precipice of peril.- HCN
Picture

As Lake Powell Hits Landmark Low, AZ Looks to a $1 Billion Investment and Mexican Seawater to Slake its Thirst

3/20/2022

 
During his last year in office, Gov. Doug Ducey is trying to create a legacy of water security in drought-stricken Arizona. But his most ambitious effort in that quest could end up being in Mexico. In his last state of the state speech in January, he proposed an investment of $1.16 billion over the next three years to make the state “more resilient to drought, secure a sustainable water future and allow for continued growth.” The goal, he said, is to “secure Arizona’s water future for the next 100 years.”- Inside Climate News
Picture

Amazon deforestation: Record high destruction of trees in January

2/12/2022

 
The number of trees cut down in the Brazilian Amazon in January far exceeded deforestation for the same month last year, according to government satellite data. The area destroyed was five times larger than 2021, the highest January total since records began in 2015. Environmentalists accuse Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro of allowing deforestation to accelerate. Protecting the Amazon is essential if we are to tackle climate change. Trees are felled for their wood as well as to clear spaces to plant crops to supply global food companies. At the climate change summit COP26, more than 100 governments promised to stop and reverse deforestation by 2030. - BBC
Picture

Conservation Commitment for French Polynesia

2/12/2022

 
The Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project today applauded French Polynesian President Édouard Fritch’s commitment to conserve roughly 1 million sq km (386,000 sq mi) by creating a new large-scale marine protected area and establishing artisanal fishing zones around 118 islands in the South Pacific Ocean. During the One Ocean Summit in Brest, France, earlier today, President Fitch pledged to launch an effort to create a 500,000-square-kilometer (193,000 square miles) marine protected area in the SW area of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ)—a move long supported by local mayors and community members. In fact, President Fritch acknowledged the local proposal, calling it by the name Rāhui Nui, or “big rāhui”—a Tahitian reference to the traditional Polynesian practice of restricting access to an area or resource to conserve it. - Pew Trust
Picture

Amazon, Target & othespace record ‘clean’ energy buying, little sign of stopping

2/12/2022

 
Influential companies, including retail giants Amazon.com and Target; and tech powerhouses Microsoft and Meta — parent company of Facebook FB, -3.74% bought a record 31.1 gigawatts of renewable energy to run their operations in 2021. That’s a jump of nearly 24% from the previous year’s record of 25.1GW of renewables, mostly solar and wind. The latest tally comes from research firm BloombergNEF, which said in a release Monday that over two-thirds of these purchases occurred in the U.S. America has trailed Europe and parts of Asia in shifting from coal and natural gas-derived NG00, +1.04% power to renewable alternatives ICLN, -2.60% to create electricity. Within the U.S., the largest technology companies are leading the move, however; they collectively signed over half of the deals. - MarketWatch
Picture

US poultry giant Tyson using land ‘twice the size of New Jersey’ for animal feed

2/10/2022

 
Corporate consolidation—in which mergers and acquisitions of smaller companies lead to fewer, larger companies—has been a trend for decades in areas ranging from retail to technology. This consolidation gives some corporations outsize power, a consequence President Biden addressed in his 2021 executive order seeking to curb the “excessive concentration of industry”  The food and agriculture sector is no exception to this troubling trend, and the consequences can be far-reaching. For example, recent research has shown that the nation's largest meat and poultry producer, Tyson Foods (Statista 2022), has monopoly-like power that threatens the health, safety, and well-being of chicken farmers, workers, and communities in numerous ways (Boehm 2021a). Another recent study showed how corporate consolidation in the US food system has increased food prices and decreased food access . - UCS
Picture

What’s getting more expensive? Everything but grazing fees.

2/9/2022

 
Inflation may be at a 40-year high, but the cost of grazing on public lands is lower now than it was 40 years ago, in 1981. Last week, the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service announced federal grazing fees for 2022: Just $1.35. Grazing fees dictate how much ranchers pay for each “animal unit” — one cow and calf, one horse or five sheep — per month. This year’s fee — just $1.35 per animal unit — keeps the grazing costs at the same rate since 2019, when Trump’s BLM lowered the fee from $1.41. Fees apply to roughly 18,000 BLM grazing permits and leases and 6,250 Forest Service permits; income is funneled to rangeland betterment funds, the U.S. Treasury, and the states where the grazing occurs. - High Country News
Picture

Industrial Hemp: transformation for NC agriculture? - TED Talk

2/1/2022

 
Hemp, a long banned crop in the US, has great potential for North Carolina agriculture. Like the peanut, hemp has many uses in food and manufacturing.  During a twenty-five year business career, Jack Whitley has worked for two organizations; a Fortune 50 consumer financial services company and a mid-market e-commerce specialty retailer.
Jack’s work has been at the intersection of marketing, technology, e- commerce, strategy, corporate leadership, and both for-profit and non-profit board service.  Now he grows hemp which can be used for paper, fuel, clothing, and building products all while saving water.  - TED Talks
Picture

Antitrust suit can proceed against SRP over charges to solar customers

2/1/2022

 
A federal appeals court said Monday that SRP customers who also have solar panels at their homes can pursue an antitrust claim against the utility for a policy of charging them more than other customers. The decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that had thrown out the case, which claimed the higher fees were aimed at stifling competition from renewable energy. Advocates for the customers welcomed the ruling as a win for “everyday people” like William Ellis, the lead plaintiff in the suit. “These are everyday people like Mr. Ellis, who just wants to put rooftop solar on his house to get clean energy,” said Jean Su, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, which supported the customers’ suit. - Cronkite News
Picture

AZ regulators reject 100% clean energy rules package, energy efficiency standard

1/27/2022

 
The Arizona Corporation Commission rejected the adoption of a set of clean energy rules on Wednesday in a 3-2 vote. The rules package included a timeline for 100% carbon-free electricity, new demand-side resources standards and integrated resource planning reforms. The package would have expanded energy efficiency programs for Arizona Public Service (APS) and Tucson Electric Power (TEP), offering rebates to customers for replacing inefficient appliances and upgrading lighting. Commissioner Jim O'Connor, R, voted against the rules package despite his work last May with Commissioner Anna Tovar, D, to revive the package through a separate rulemaking. Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) called O'Connor's vote "surprising." - Utility Dive

UN report: The world’s farms stretched to ‘a breaking point’

1/25/2022

 
Almost 10% of the 8 billion people on earth are already undernourished with 3 billion lacking healthy diets, and the land and water resources farmers rely on stressed to “a breaking point.” And by 2050 there will be 2 billion more mouths to feed, warns a new report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). For now, farmers have been able to boost agricultural productivity by irrigating more land and applying heavier doses of fertilizer and pesticides. But the report says these practices are not sustainable: They have eroded and degraded soil while polluting and depleting water supplies and shrinking the world’s forests. - Yale Climate Connections
Picture

The myth and reality of alternatives for rare minerals in EV batteries

1/6/2022

 
For years, commentators have been handwringing about the extraction practices, environmental and social harms, and corporate ownership of mining operations that contribute to clean energy technology, with a focus on cobalt, rare earths and other rare ingredients of the clean energy transition. Much like governmental, intergovernmental and private assessments of "critical materials," these critiques pay far too little attention to how scarcity, usually signaled by price, elicits not only mineral exploration and mine development but also a powerful set of other and faster adaptations and alternatives such as efficient use, substitution and recycling. - Green Biz / Amory Lovins-RMI
Picture
<<Previous

    GeoNews

    This is a way to share science-based info from reliable sources. Click the source link after text to read more. Use this Google Doc or this Google Slides template to summarize an article. An occasional podcast featuring news and topic experts will be included.
    ​
    Contact Prof Jeff to share items.

    Categories

    All
    Agriculture
    Air Pollution
    Animals
    Arizona
    Beaches
    Biosphere (Plants / Animals)
    Climate Change
    Earthquakes
    Earth's Interior
    Economics
    Energy
    Erosion
    Fire
    Food
    Forests
    Fossil Fuels
    Geologic History
    Geophysics
    Glaciers
    Groundwater
    Health
    Humor
    Indigenous Peoples
    Magnetic
    Mass Wasting
    Meteorites
    Minerals
    Mining
    Nuclear Power
    Oceans
    Ozone
    Plate Tectonics / EQs
    Pollution
    Population
    Recycling
    Renewable Energy
    Rivers
    Soil
    Space Science
    Sustainability
    Transportation
    Tsunami
    Volcanoes
    Waste
    Water


    Archives

    September 2022
    August 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020



    RSS Feed

Site powered by Weebly. Managed by MacHighway
  • Home
  • GLG101IN
  • GLG110IN
  • GLG280/281
  • GEONEWS
  • JEFF
  • Sustainable Building Project
  • UDP