Tag Archives: CO2 Emissions

Green Design, Reviews, Sustainability, Technology, Videos

World Economic Forum: Top Stories- July 8, 2023

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World Economic Forum (July 8, 2023) – This week’s top stories of the week include:

0:15 This is what CO2 emissions look like from space – This graphic shows CO2 emissions over Asia and Australia during 2021. It was developed by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio. The orange ‘clouds’ represent CO2 from fossil fuel emissions. While the red clouds show CO2 emitted by burning biomass from wildfires, for example. As the year progresses, the fossil fuel emissions drift southwards, obscuring Australia.

1:25 India’s renewable energy revolution – The scale of economic growth in India is stunning. Its GDP grew by 7.2% in 2022-23, while electricity demand shot up by 8%. In the next few decades, its energy demand is set to grow more than in any other country. India has pledged to meet 50% of its electricity needs from low-carbon sources by 2030 and reduce energy intensity by 45% from 2005 levels.

3:00 This company is using lasers to beam internet to remote areas – Using chips and mirrors, laser signals are beamed over a distance of up to 20km. “This is as simple as a digital camera with a laser pointer. So you’re using a laser pointer to kind of transmit the data from one end to the other end. And then on the other end, think of the same digital camera, which is receiving the same laser beams and is able to decode it and then convert it into bytes.”

4:40 China will meet it’s renewable energy targets 5 years early – China is on track to hit its renewable energy target 5 years early. This rapid progress could limit global emissions faster than forecast. China is already a global leader in renewable energy, and its planned additions will increase global wind and solar capacity by almost 50% and 85%, respectively.

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The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

Analysis, Climate Change, Environment, Technology, Videos

Environment: Investing In Carbon Capture Systems

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The system could be one answer to slashing Earth’s carbon emissions. A Swiss startup has created a giant vacuum cleaner to capture carbon dioxide from the air, helping companies offset their emissions. WSJ visits the facility to see how it traps the gas for sale to clients like Coca-Cola, which uses it in fizzy drinks. Composite: Clément Bürge.

Analysis, Climate Change, Technology, Videos

Climate Change: The Challenges For Carbon Capture Technologies

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Elon Musk, Microsoft and oil giants like BP, Occidental and Exxon Mobil are investing in carbon capture technologies. Carbon Engineering and Climeworks are two start-ups that have built machines to suck CO2 straight out of the atmosphere in a process known as direct air capture. But the technology faces a number of challenges, one of which is that there’s currently no market for the captured CO2. As a result, some companies are selling their captured CO2 to oil companies, which use it to produce even more oil.

Innovations, Technology, Videos

Innovation: Diamonds Made From CO2 Emissions

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A UK company named Skydiamond hopes to revolutionize the traditional diamond mining industry by using carbon capture technology to do just that. The company calls it a ‘zero-impact diamond’ because the process pulls carbon dioxide right out of the air.

Although, a diamond traps only a modest amount of carbon — one carat contains just 200 milligrams. Pure carbon can take many forms — it all depends on how the atoms are arranged. Graphite is arranged into multiple layers, graphene in a single layer, and if it’s rolled-up, it forms carbon nanotubes. But when each carbon forms 4 strong bonds in a tetrahedral structure, it becomes a diamond.

Most natural diamonds were formed over a billion years ago, more than 120 kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface. This is where intense temperature and pressure cause carbon atoms to strongly bond together and arrange into crystal structures. Volcanic eruptions bring these crystals embedded in magma to the surface. When the magma cools, it hardens in long vertical shafts called kimberlite pipes. And these pipes are what’s sought after in the mining industry.

Analysis, Climate Change, Society, Videos

Analysis: Overpopulation – Are Environmental Issues Caused By It? (Video)

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Around 390,000 new humans are born every day. So, on a planet with dwindling resources and an increasing strain on natural systems… is curbing our booming population the key to solving our environmental woes?

In 2018, just North America and China were responsible for almost half of the world’s CO2 emissions. These are also the countries with the highest concentrations of the world’s wealthiest people. Their populations are living longer and having fewer babies, so their population growth is actually slowing down. By contrast, the poorest half of the world—where most global population growth is currently concentrated — produces only 10% of the world’s CO2 emissions.

These populations typically lack the technology and wealth that result in high energy expenditure, increased industrialization, and pollution. So, in climate change projections that take these imbalances into account, it’s been shown that redistributing wealth—so, reducing both extreme wealth and extreme poverty—has as much impact on carbon emissions as reducing overall population would.

Even in projected scenarios where a reduction in population does make a difference in emissions, it’s not enough of a difference to affect projected temperature rise. No amount of population reduction would achieve the reduction in emissions necessary to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius in our near future.