Climate Stories You Need To Know About: Bad, Barking Mad, And Hopeful

The climate change existential threat has given way to the Donald Trump global disruption of the planet. Trump, who calls climate change a hoax perpetrated by China, is rolling back the clock through executive orders to block renewable energy in favour of coal. His backers are the fossil fuel energy giants who have paid lip service to combatting greenhouse gas emissions from their operations. Meanwhile, so-called scientists, more like mad-as-a-hatter scientists, want to launch atmospheric tinkering experiments in the United Kingdom to cool the climate.

Rather than reducing carbon emissions by burning less coal, natural gas and oil, we are being offered a raft of climate technology solutions from removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air to shielding our atmosphere from the Sun.

Where Trump and the climate issue intersect is the first of several stories worth sharing.

Trump Wants To Bring Back “Clean Coal”

The expression “clean coal” is a misnomer. There is no such thing. Burning coal is the most carbon-intensive way to generate energy. Trump wants to revive domestic coal production, describing it as a “beautiful, clean industry.” His executive order this month calls for opening up coal leases on federal land, reclassifying coal as a mineral to get past environmental regulations, reversing the prior administration’s actions transitioning away from it, and encouraging its use to power artificial intelligence (AI) data centres.

Trump’s stand on coal is only one part of a concerted series of anti-climate change actions, as he prioritizes burning fossil fuels rather than using renewables for energy production. If the industry gladly practices what Trump is preaching, it will mean:

• America’s contribution to carbon emissions will grow.
• The administration that promised Americans the cleanest air and water will renege.
• Handcuffing the Environmental Protection Agency’s initiatives to limit environmental toxins.
• Reversing decades of air and water quality improvements that date back to Richard Nixon’s presidency.
• Rising rates of asthma, heart and lung disease, and premature deaths.

UK Scientists Plan “Barking Mad” Geoengineering Experiment

Not all the lunacy is confined to this side of the Atlantic Ocean when it comes to the climate change file. The British government’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) has plans to conduct geoengineering trials to block sunlight. Instead of removing carbon emissions by burning fossil fuels less, the idea is to dim the Sun using chemicals introduced into the atmosphere that cause changes to clouds.

So we need to get this straight. We know it is carbon emissions that cause global warming. The carbon emissions are equivalent to the virus that causes a disease. We can kill the virus which would mean removing carbon emissions, or, we can do what these UK folks at ARIA want to do, treat the symptoms. It is like taking cough syrup to stop viral pneumonia.

Geoengineering is defined as artificially altering the planet’s natural systems through tinkering. I have written about injecting aerosols into the upper atmosphere in the past, and about seeding the ocean with iron to sequester the dissolved carbon within it.

Solar geoengineering has been described by some scientists as “barking mad.” Nevertheless, ARIA has set aside £50 million to do cloud brightening experiments that could go wrong in so many ways. The only positive is that the experiments will be small-scale trials. What will likely be involved? A process called stratospheric aerosol injection will release particles into the stratosphere to brighten clouds to make them reflect sunlight. Many atmospheric scientists see this as extremely dangerous, with unintended consequences leading to altered precipitation and wind patterns.

In a Guardian article, American scientists Raymond Pierrehumbert and Michael Mann describe solar geoengineering as equivalent to “taking aspirin for cancer.” Need I say more?

Atlantic Canada Companies Given Cleantech Awards

On the good news front, where technology may prove helpful in removing carbon from the environment, treating the disease rather than the symptom, Atlantic Canada recently announced the first annual Cleantech Awards. The awards recognize organizations, governments, academia and companies located in Canada’s four eastern provinces for contributions made to lowering carbon in the atmosphere. The inaugural winners include:

• The city of Summerside on Prince Edward Island was awarded the Adopter of the Year for its integration of renewable energy into the municipal grid and for clean transportation initiatives.
• Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia received the Supporter of the Year award for establishing the Canadian Battery Innovation Centre (CBIC), the first university-based battery prototyping facility in Canada.
• Carbon to Sea was acknowledged as Funder of the Year for its ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) experiment designed to remove CO2 from the air by enhancing the ocean’s natural capacity as a carbon sink.
• pHathom Technologies received the Startup Venture of the Year for its Accelerated Weathering of Limestone (AWL) carbon removal technology using seawater and limestone to capture CO2.
• CarbonRun was declared the Scaleup Venture of the Year for its river-based carbon removal technology that uses natural limestone powder dosing to produce bicarbonate, calcium and magnesium and to draw down CO2 absorbed by river water, which when reaching the Atlantic, becomes permanently stored in deep ocean reservoirs. While sequestering carbon this technology helps to improve the health of river system biomes.