Destructive Climate Resources

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Destructive Climate Resources & Products; Hits: 34

The first step in managing plastic waste is measuring it – here’s how we did it for one Caribbean country.The Conversation Clyde Eiríkur Hull Professor of Management, Rochester Institute of Technology & Eric Williams Professor of Sustainability, Rochester Institute of Technology January 17, 2020 Countries around the world throw away millions of tons of plastic trash every year. Finding ways to manage plastic waste is daunting even for wealthy nations, but for smaller and less-developed countries it can be overwhelming. We recently carried out a study for the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago that applied economic principles to its plastics management challenge. Some of what we did can be used anywhere.

Our backgrounds are in business management and sustainability. Although Trinidad and Tobago is a tiny country whose economy is based on beach tourism and the petroleum industry, and we had relatively little data on plastic production, use and disposal available, we see this as a useful case study. Trinidad and Tobago is not the only place where data is limited or expensive.Because Trinidad and Tobago’s population is just 1.2 million, we were able to look at its complete economy. It belongs to Caricom, the Caribbean Community, a regional organization that includes 16 million people, giving it access to larger markets. And it struggles with the same problems many large countries face: lack of landfill space. The disposal problem is urgent.

Plastic arrives as packaging.....The first step to solving any problem is to measure it. This is often challenging for plastics, due to lack of data on where they come from and end up. A major part of our analysis was repurposing trade statistics to make up for limited data. Material flow analysis helps quantify the flow of products and wastes. This process was developed in the late 1990s by industrial ecologists for waste management. They have applied it to track materials like metals and products like computers at national and international scales. The analysis combines different kinds of data. It tracks imported or newly manufactured products entering economies to their use and reuse, including recycling, export or disposal in landfills. Academics and government agencies conduct material flow analysis to inform environmental management. The most surprising finding from our study was that most of the plastic entering the country’s landfills – a total of 49,000 tons per year – was not produced or imported. Rather, it entered the country as packaging around imported products. In other words, the largest amount of landfilled plastic “came along for the ride” with other things.

Recycle, burn or ban.....Much plastic waste ends up in landfills (or the ocean), but there are better solutions. One is recycling. One promising finding from our study is that people in Trinidad and Tobago throw away 26,000 tons of PET plastic bottles every year – enough to make building a domestic recycling facility economically efficient. https://theconversation.com/the-first-step-in-managing-plastic-waste-is-measuring-it-heres-how-we-did-it-for-one-caribbean-country-125547

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Destructive Climate Resources & Products; Hits: 60

Cement is a fine powder made from a mixture of limestone, clay, and other minerals, which is commonly used as a binder together with aggregates to make concrete. There are various types of cement, such as Portland cement, slag cement, and fly ash cement, each with different properties and uses. Fair Planet Gerardo Bandera 26 Dec 2024 A key ingredient of cement is clinker, which is produced by heating limestone with other materials such as clay and shale, a process that releases large volumes of C02, which makes cement responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions.

Why is concrete so damaging to the environment? In a world built on concrete, most of us rarely stop to question the environmental price of modernisation. Yet, this seemingly indispensable material is responsible for over 7% of global carbon emissions—a footprint larger than most countries. As urbanisation accelerates, can we afford to keep paving over nature? Or is it time to build smarter, greener solutions before concrete solidifies its place as one of the planet’s biggest threats? Climate experts at COP29, the UN's global climate conference held in Azerbaijan this year, called for a reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the construction sector, comprising the concrete, iron and steel industries, which collectively generate 27 per cent of the world’s industrial carbon emissions. Of these, concrete is responsible for over 7 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions.

What is concrete? Concrete is created by mixing a binding mass, either cement or lime, with fine or coarse aggregates (like stone, gravel or sand) and water. The cement is a manufactured mixture of materials that includes calcium, silicon, aluminium and iron, among other ingredients. While concrete has been used since ancient civilisations, like the Mayans, the Ancient Egyptians and the Romans, who used different ingredients like limestone and volcanic stone, modern concrete mainly relies on Portland cement.

Why is concrete bad for the environment?

Greenhouse gas emissions.....The creation of cement is the most carbon-intensive portion of the concrete process. This comes down to two main activities: the calcination of limestone and the heating of cement kilns.

To create Portland cement, limestone undergoes a calcination process, which releases large amounts of CO2 from the chemical reaction. This is the concrete industry’s dirtiest activity, releasing up to 50 per cent of the cement industry’s carbon emissions. Additionally, to transform raw materials into clinker, cement's intermediate product, large amounts of energy are required to heat, mix and cool the ingredients in giant kilns. It is estimated that, in traditional kilns, one tonne of cement produces one tonne of carbon dioxide, although modernised factories have found ways to reduce these emissions. Water Use...... Cement creation is also highly water intensive, particularly during cooling after materials are baked at extremely high temperatures. Nature Magazine estimates the concrete industry is responsible for nine per cent of all water withdrawals from the sector. Approximately 16.6 km squared of water is used annually for concrete production, and this figure is expected to soar as the demand for concrete continues to rise. By 2050, most of the water withdrawals for concrete production will be in geographical areas that already face water stress, found a 20188 study published in Nature

Reduces Biodiversity......The rapid urbanisation of the past century has resulted in drastic biodiversity loss, as animals, plants, and fungi have found themselves and their ecosystems smothered under tonnes of concrete. As much as 80 per cent of urban spaces are covered by pavement or buildings, leaving little land for green spaces.

Not many species can adapt to the urban environment, which leaves many without mating grounds, food sources or homes.The result is a homogenisation of species, which disrupts food chains and ecosystems - including our food systems. The endangerment of bee species is a key example, as the loss of hive habitats and pollen-producing flowers has caused bee populations to plummet. How concrete contributes to environmental injustice...... Air Pollution.....Cement production emits large amounts of toxic substances into the air, worsening air quality and leading to respiratory diseases. For example, cement factories have been known to release Sulphur dioxide and Carbon monoxide, which can cause or aggravate respiratory issues like asthma or cause damage to the central nervous system. Heat Island Effect.......Concrete is notorious for magnifying heat on hot days, creating what is known as the heat island effect. Concrete paving can increase urban temperatures by up to seven degrees Fahrenheit (3.9 degrees Celsius). This is significantly magnified in lower-income areas of cities, which have fewer green spaces and plants and more pavement - leading to sweltering heat and pronounced environmental racism.

Concrete Solutions..... Despite the various hazards that concrete and its production generate, humanity is far from phasing it out since concrete offers many benefits that are hard to beat. No other material can yet compete with its value for low-cost production, durability and strength.For this reason, concrete was widely adopted to reconstruct war-torn nations after the Second World War. Its ease of creation from widely available natural resources has helped spur urbanisation in the Global South.....read on https://www.fairplanet.org/story/concrete-climate-change-environmental-injustice/

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Destructive Climate Resources & Products; Hits: 77

There are thousands of worldwide initiatives surrounding marine plastic pollution that range from raising awareness, to implementing local rules, to clean-up efforts. The Copernicus Marine Service supports NGOs dedicated to marine plastic pollution by providing ocean literacy tools and information. In Europe, the largest network that fights plastic pollution is Surfrider Foundation Europe, which works toward prevention of pollution and beach clean-up. In 2017, Copernicus Marine supported the 7th continent expedition by providing them with drift models to monitor the Great Garbage plastic patch in the North Atlantic. Children for the Oceans raises awareness amongst youth about plastic pollution and gives them tools to become activists. EXXpedition, headed by skipper Emily Penn, organises all-female sailing research expeditions that investigate the causes and solutions to ocean plastic pollution. They use our drift particle interactive maps to illustrate ocean plastics across the ocean and particularly within the tropical gyres

Knowing the origin and sources of marine plastic pollution allows us to improve waste management systems and adopt suitable public policies. The Copernicus Marine Service provides ocean information including near-real-time current data that can help institutions to build coherent plastic management strategies.......

Operational oceanography to monitor plastic origins...Most plastic marine litter is the result of bad waste management. Continental plastic litter is flushed into the ocean by storms and river systems or is directly discharged into coastal waters. It has been estimated that at least 60% of plastic floating in the ocean is exported from coastal to the open-ocean waters. It is estimated [2] that about 1.15 to 2.41 million tons of plastic waste enters the ocean every year from rivers. “It is interesting to note that fishing-related debris accounted for 20% of the total by number but 70% by weight, with floats/buoys predominating. Such items are a common component of shoreline debris in mid-ocean islands.”. The economic sectors linked to marine plastic contamination. Some economic sectors are more linked to marine plastic pollution:

Tourism increases the quantity of plastic flushed in the oceans through the building and creation of infrastructures and services. In fact, this is the cause for 40% of the plastic pollution in the Mediterranean Sea.
The retail sector contributes to about 40% of all plastics produced. This is mostly in the form of packaging, especially for food and drink, which are essential for sanitary reasons.
The agriculture sector produces a significant quantity of macroplastics through irrigation pipes and fertilizing pellets and containers, many of which end up in the ocean.
The construction sector produces a large amount of plastic waste, especially large infrastructure projects. CLICK ON Sources of Plastic Solutions Icon as well as the other Icons regarding plastic......read on https://marine.copernicus.eu/explainers/phenomena-threats/plastic-pollution/sources-marine-plastic-pollution

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Drilling Down on Methane Loss. RMI Dwayne Purvis, Kevin Gauthier, Deborah Gordon, Carmela Chaney, Lauren Schmeisser, Cayla Calderwood Mar 16 2026 A framework for correcting self-reported oil and gas data finds that, in Texas, significantly more methane is wasted than is currently recorded — and this may be common practice elsewhere.

Introduction......Methane is the main component of natural gas. Oil and gas are typically comingled underground and extracted together. Gas is valuable when captured and sold—but harmful when released into the air, heating the planet, impacting health, and damaging property. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, trapping 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide in the short term.In oil and gas production, methane can escape in many ways. Some releases are accidental. Others happen during maintenance and repair. But two major sources — venting (releasing gas directly into the air) and flaring (burning gas at the well site) — are largely under an operator’s control. Because these releases are intentional, they should be among the easiest emissions to measure and report accurately — and ultimately prevent.

Texas requires oil and gas operators to report information about how much gas they vent and flare each month. These self-reported figures form the official record of how much gas is wasted in the state. But when we analyzed a 12-month subset of data in Texas ending late 2024, we found that the reported numbers did not add up. Operators self-reported about 120 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas vented and flared during our study period. However, our analysis suggests the true total may be as high as 551 Bcf — four and a half times higher. Most of the difference appears to come from underreported venting of gas. This gap represents both environmental harm and economic loss. If up to 551 Bcf of gas was wasted, that translates to 7.6 million metric tons of methane emissions. To put this in perspective, the natural gas wasted in Texas in a single year had greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 100 million cars, SUVs, and pickups — 40% of the light-duty vehicles driven in the US in 2024. At the same time, the gas released into the air had significant market value. In 2022 alone, officially self-reported waste was valued at about $700 million, which amounted to $50 million in lost tax revenue. If the 2024 gas waste estimated in this study is monetized, over $1 billion in Texas’s gas value was forgone, with associated lost tax revenue of nearly $100 million. And with highly volatile and recently rising natural gas prices economic loss to the State is mounting. These industry losses also correspond to lost taxes for the state. In other words, Texas may be allowing billions of dollars of its natural resources to be wasted with attendant tax revenue loss while causing harm by increasing methane pollution.

Our analysis also reveals three important trends......

First, most of the difference is from underreported venting rather than underreported flaring. There is a NASA satellite (VIIRS) that measures flaring, making it harder to underreport these volumes.
Second, methane releases are much higher from oil wells than from gas wells. When gas is the primary product, operators tend to conserve it. When oil is the primary product, any associated gas is more likely to be treated as disposable.
Finally, low-producing wells show much higher release rates than high-producing wells. When all wells are averaged together, these high-emission sources can be hidden by better-performing operations.

Underreported gas loss is unlikely to be unique to Texas. Many states rely on similar self-reporting systems with limited verification. In the methodology, which is presented here, we present a framework for identifying missing or implausible data and estimating more realistic volumes. Applying this approach more widely could improve methane inventories, reduce economic waste, increase state revenues, and support stronger, more transparent energy management. Methane is the main component of natural gas. Oil and gas are typically commingled underground and extracted together. Gas is valuable when captured and sold—but harmful when released into the air, heating the planet, impacting health, and damaging property. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, trapping 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide in the short term.

In oil and gas production, methane can escape in many ways. Some releases are accidental. Others happen during maintenance and repair. But two major sources — venting (releasing gas directly into the air) and flaring (burning gas at the well site) — are largely under an operator’s control. Because these releases are intentional, they should be among the easiest emissions to measure and report accurately — and ultimately prevent. Texas requires oil and gas operators to report information about how much gas they vent and flare each month. These self-reported figures form the official record of how much gas is wasted in the state. But when we analyzed a 12-month subset of data in Texas ending late 2024, we found that the reported numbers did not add up. Operators self-reported about 120 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas vented and flared during our study period. However, our analysis suggests the true total may be as high as 551 Bcf — four and a half times higher. Most of the difference appears to come from underreported venting of gas.

This gap represents both environmental harm and economic loss. If up to 551 Bcf of gas was wasted, that translates to 7.6 million metric tons of methane emissions. To put this in perspective, the natural gas wasted in Texas in a single year had greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 100 million cars, SUVs, and pickups — 40% of the light-duty vehicles driven in the US in 2024.At the same time, the gas released into the air had significant market value. In 2022 alone, officially self-reported waste was valued at about $700 million, which amounted to $50 million in lost tax revenue. If the 2024 gas waste estimated in this study is monetized, over $1 billion in Texas’s gas value was forgone, with associated lost tax revenue of nearly $100 million. And with highly volatile and recently rising natural gas prices economic loss to the State is mounting. These industry losses also correspond to lost taxes for the state. In other words, Texas may be allowing billions of dollars of its natural resources to be wasted with attendant tax revenue loss while causing harm by increasing methane pollution.

Underreported gas loss is unlikely to be unique to Texas. Many states rely on similar self-reporting systems with limited verification. In the methodology, which is presented here, we present a framework for identifying missing or implausible data and estimating more realistic volumes. Applying this approach more widely could improve methane inventories, reduce economic waste, increase state revenues, and support stronger, more transparent energy management.......read on https://rmi.org/drilling-down-on-methane-loss/

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Destructive Climate Resources & Products; Hits: 64

Smithsonian Research Project Salt Marsh Accretion Response to Temperature eXperiment (SMARTX) The Salt Marsh Accretion Response to Temperature experiment (SMARTX) is a whole-ecosystem active warming experiment in the Global Change Research Wetland dedicated to understanding the ecosystem-scale consequences of warming and elevated CO2 on carbon cycling in tidal wetlands. In particular, we are looking at how the plant- and microbial-driven processes that regulate coastal wetland carbon sequestration are affected by multiple simultaneous ecosystem stressors (warming and elevated CO2) and what that means for coastal wetlands and other ecosystems in the future. The interdisciplinary team includes researchers from SERC, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Oak Ridge National Lab, USGS, and Rider University. SMARTX has been supported by the US Department of Energy Environmental System Science program since 2016.

How It Works.......In 2016, we set up 30 new plots that are exposed to a range of warming. Some plots are left at ambient temperatures, while others are heated year-round to 1.7°C, 3.4°C, and 5.1°C above ambient using a combination of infrared lamps and belowground heating cables. An integrated feedback control system allows the heating system to be constantly adjusted to keep each plot at exactly the right temperature. The experiment is set up in two areas of the wetland, to compare how different plant communities respond to warming, and each treatment is repeated three times, to capture any spatial variability. There are also some plots with open-top chambers that are used to increase the atmospheric CO2 concentration to 750 parts per million, like in the CO2 and nitrogen experiment. SMARTX was the first replicated experiment in any terrestrial ecosystem that combined feedback-controlled whole-ecosystem warming with elevated CO2. Current Themes......Methane cycling- Though brackish wetlands are not typically assumed to be large sources of methane (CH4), we have found that CH4 emissions (measured with manual chambers) are substantially higher from the warmed plots, suggesting large shifts in anaerobic metabolism. This discovery led to further work looking at the effect of warming and elevated CO2 on carbon mineralization, redox potential, and marsh stability, as well as how plant traits affect CH4 dynamics.

Aboveground and belowground plant responses.......In coastal wetlands, plant biomass can be a key component of whether or not the ecosystem will survive rising sea levels, especially highly organic sites like GCREW. In the first two years of SMARTX, we discovered that plants respond asynchronously to warming, with a large increase in belowground biomass occurring at +1.7°C, an effect that we attribute to changes in N cycling under the different warming scenarios.......read on....... https://serc.si.edu/gcrew/warming ...........AND....... Visit the Global Change Research Wetland homepage

The First Step in Managing Plastic Waste is measuring it

Why is Concrete so Damaging to the Environment?

MARINE PLASTIC POLUTION The Copernicus Marine Service supports NGOs dedicated to Marine Plastic Pollution

Drilling Down on Methane Loss- RMI

Smithsonian Research Project Salt Marsh Accretion Response to Temperature eXperiment

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