Could the next vehicle you drive be powered not by gas from a drilled well but by a cleaner form of energy known as biogas or biomethane? Climate improvement may be encouraged by a solving a problem.
Oil well pump, Midland, Texas. Image: wikimedia.
Oil wells – part of the 20th century landscape – are not only becoming a relic of the past, they are now a menace to the future. Old wells, once dry of oil, continue to emit pollution. More recently, other kinds of wells have been opened for hydraulic fracturing, sometimes called fracking, uses water to power invasive drilling to release oil and gas locked in rock formations. Drillers use underground water, promising to seal off the well. But what happens when the fracking site is no longer productive? Millions of older fracking wells are now starting to leak pollutants. And now, with the renewable energy becoming competitive in price and superior in environmental quality, wells are becoming antiquated. Moreover, the fossil fuel energy industry is stressed by dropping oil prices due to the 2020 viral pandemic: people are driving less; planes are parked in airports. Energy company bankruptcies are growing. Sometimes companies sell the wells to a new owner who then resells, and finally when it is no longer productive, the well is abandoned. No one is responsible for clean-up, since the original builder of the well has long since moved on.
Methane, a dangerous and long-lived pollutant in the atmosphere, is one of the greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol. Image: wikimedia.
According to the Groundwater Protection Council, “orphaned wells” are beginning to leak methane. Recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) flagged methane from abandoned oil and gas wells as an emerging global risk, in an April 2020 report. Worldwide, there may be 29 million abandoned gas and oil wells. Canada, where oil sands mining prevails, reported 313,000 abandoned wells emitting 10 kilotons of methane. The United States has 2 million abandoned wells: most were never properly sealed. China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia (the three other large oil and gas producers, along with Canada and USA) have not revealed their methane leakage from wells. Even small amounts of methane pose dangers. The United States reports methane as the cause of 10% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, but methane is 84 times more damaging than carbon dioxide in the first two decades of release, and 28 times over a century’s timeframe. Methane is one of the seven greenhouse gases regulated under the Kyoto Protocol: the list includes carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (JFCs), per fluorocarbons (PFCs), sulphurhexaflouride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NFc). These gases are dangerous because they are stable, meaning they stay in the atmosphere once released. Methane has been identified as responsible for 25% of global warming.
Capturing methane in a biogas sytem. Image: wikimedia
Yet methane is a valuable energy source, when harnessed. One possible solution: biogas (biomethane). Biomethane is formed by decomposing organic substances like agricultural or animal waste, even sewage. With upgrades, biogas can achieve an energy productivity equal to natural gas. Biogas can be recovered from waste treatment plants and refined to renewable natural gas (RNG) to generate electricity or even power car. Another method: fuel cell technology using waste; there is no combustion, so no exhaust and related pollution. A sample project using biogas to power fuel cells can be found in Fountain Valley, California; Apple uses fuel cell energy from Bloom Energy.
As the world emerges from the coronona virus pandemic, countries are funding re-entry for businesses, cities, and states. Is 2020 the time to seize the opportunity to capture methane from old wells as the energy sector rebuilds?
“The dawn of a new era in human spaceflight,” by Anne McClain, astronaut, showing SpaceX Crew Dragon approaching the International Space Station. Image: wikimedia.
Space is a new field, and firsts happen regularly. But this week’s milestone marks a signifiant new era for public and private cooperative success. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and NASA achieved delivery of astronauts Behnken and Hurley to the International Space Station. It’s also the renewal of American crew launches from the original place where humans first set off for the moon. SpaceX and Nasa will now move into a new phase of the $2.6bn contract to delivery six “space-taxi” flights to ISS. Also aboard: a sequined toy dinosaur, sent aloft to accompany by the astronauts’ children. “Tremor” will be the first dinosaur to experience zero gravity, so the Apatosaurus also sports a leash.
Satellite in geosynchronous orbit. Image: wikimedia
When COMSAT began a new era in communications, emphasis was on getting satellites into orbit, not how to get them down. One option: a “graveyard” orbit where old tech circles endlessly in a geriatric retirement lap; another solution, crash and burn; a third, shoot them, causing space junk to become space debris, now tallied at 50,000 pieces hurtling at 17,500 miles per hour and causing hazards to active spacecraft. The 1972 Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects established some guidelines, but so far humans are better at launching satellites than retrieving or fixing them, and many satellites are getting old. But there has been a breakthrough.
Intelsat. Image: wikimedia.
In April 2020, Intelsat 901, beaming Internet to airplanes and ships, was running out of steering power but still functioning. Northrop Grumman built a spacecraft called the Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) to fly to Intelsat 901, latch on and supply propulsion and steering. This is the first time in history that two commercial spacecraft have docked together in space, proving that in-orbit service is possible. Existing satellites are getting on in years, and may need servicing. Space will see more communication satellites, along with observation technology monitoring Earth’s climate. Northrup Grumman and Intelsat plan to continue in-orbit service, a new industry.
“Sea Level Rise: 1880-2013, depicted in stripe graphic,” created by Dr. Richard Selwyn Jones, Durham University. Image: wikimedia.
CLIMATE HOT SPOTS
“2 Degrees Centigrade: Beyond The Limit,” a Washington Post series of articles won the 2020 Pulitzer for Explanatory Reporting. The series looks at what the world will be like if we reach that temperature increase, as well as explores areas that have already exceeded 2 Degrees Centigrade. The Northeast Corridor, including Boston and New York, is one area. Another is the coastal curve south of Santa Barbara, California running through Los Angeles and into the arroyos along the Mexican border: the area has warmed at double the rate of the rest of the United States, seeing an increase of 2.3 degrees.
California coast. Image: wikimedia
SEA RISE IS CERTAIN
California was also the focus of Pulitzer Prize Finalist, the Los Angeles Times, presenting articles on rising seas on the Pacific coast. The LA Times series included a climate change/oceans interactive game.
“The Rising Sea Level” as measured by TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 satellites. Image: nasa.gov
SEA RISE: REGIONAL RESPONSE THROUGH TRADE, EDUCATION, AND INNOVATION
Rising seas are global but response is regional. California is linked to Mexico (in fact it once was Mexico, along with parts of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming). Canada is connected, too.
Canada, United States, Mexico showing Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Image: wikimedia.
Mexico, United States, and Canada already have a trade agreement, recently updated. Should the new trade agreement include a strategy for rising seas? Is there an educational mission included in the agreement? Universities and businesses along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of all three countries should work together to design solutions. Internships and apprenticeships in businesses engaged in sea rise response could seed a new generation of experts, just as they will be needed. Regional response is scalable: the Belt and Road Initiative is another example of a connected network linked by contracts and agreements.
Investment in innovation and technologies to meet, solve, and improve climate may be part of the ‘stubborn optimism’ described in The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis. Optimism gets things done – what can we do about rising seas?
Read the Pulitzer Prize journalism on climate change here.
Boston is going carbon neutral. You can help. Image: “Traffic streaming through downtown Boston” by photographer Robbie Shade. Wikimedia commons.
Boston suffers some of the worst traffic in the United States. City of the ‘Big Dig’ or Central Artery Project, Boston has set the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. Innovative ideas for that achievement can be discovered at the Museum of Science where students from around New England are presenting proposals and videos in Go Carbon Neutral: A Transportation Challenge. Winners will be announced on April 30. Take a look at these ideas for building a better Boston, and vote for your favorite here.
High upon a virtual mountaintop, the Petersberg Climate Dialogue gathered 35 countries to steer the course for achieving Paris Agreement goals. Alok Sharma, UK Secretary of State for Business and Energy and President of COP26, and Svenja Schulze, Federal Environment Minister of Germany, co-chaired ‘International Climate Action after the Coronavirus Pandemic.” While there is good news, including the cost of solar energy now 85% lower than in 2010, it is not enough: 840 million people lack access to electricity. As world governments allocate funding to rebuild economies after Covid-19, there is an unprecedented opportunity for “finance to support a green economic recovery and foster ambitious climate action.” We have not acted fast enough to reach climate goals, in part due to funding. The world might now have A UNIQUE opportunity to rebuild. Petersberg Climate Dialogue is digital: participate here.
“If the coronavirus crisis has shown one thing, it is that our society is not sustainable,” stated Greta Thunberg, climate activist who spoke on Earth Day 2020 with Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute and earth systems scientist. There is a correlation between the health crisis and the environmental crisis: deforestation has threatened wildlife habitat, allowing virus and disease to leap species; air pollution has weakened human respiratory systems, making people more vulnerable; air travel has promoted rapid spread of disease. According to Rockström, “We are living beyond the carrying capacity of the planet.”
Post-pandemic, Earth’s global community should set new goals:
Create new jobs in clean, renewable energy;
Invest in the future rather than the past;
Incorporate climate risk into the financial system;
Promote international cooperation.
Today is Earth Day’s golden anniversary, celebrated on the 50th year. The pause caused by the pandemic has given us a new view of what is possible. Energy has already changed. An unprecedented amount of money has poured into recovery and rebuilding. How can we use this golden anniversary as a golden opportunity?
How should we spend the money of hope? Image: wikimedia.
THE MONEY OF HOPE
In the early part of 2020, the entire globe went into lockdown, suffered a plague of sickness and death that took lives and livelihoods of those in every corner of the world. In an urgent response, money on an unprecedented scale has entered the global economy.
Economic stimulus, large deposits of cash and loans, initiated to save national and global economies, present opportunity. How countries direct their bailouts may determine the future. Never again will so much money be readily available to rebuild the world. Let’s take a look at some examples:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
$700 billion pledged in asset purchases or quantitative easing (QE)
Federal funds rate: 0-0.25%
Discount window rate: cut by 150 basis points
Unlimited QE, including purchase of corporate and municipal bonds
Six months of allowing foreign central banks to access U.S. dollars for overnight dollar loans
$2.3 trillion to support local governments, small-mid businesses, with 4-year loans to enterprise with up to 10,000 staff
$2.2 trillion aid package (27 March 2020) with $500 billion for suffering industries and direct payments to individuals ($1200) and families (up to $3,000)
EUROPEAN UNION
120 billion euros ($130 billion) added to asset-purchase program of 20 billion euros per month
750 billion euros in QE, adding to existing with total of 1.1 trillion euros
Eliminated cap on number of bonds EU could buy from any Eurozone country
Cut interest on Targeted Long-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTROs) by 25 basis points to -0.75% (12 March 2020)
Suspended limits of EU government borrowing
Allowed credit line equal to 2% of national GDP from European Stability Mechanism (ESM) fund
European Investment Bank lending 200 billion euros to businesses
ESM freeing up 240 billion Europe of credit to governments
Total of 3.2 trillion euros: including provisions to cut company working hours rather than jobs
Berlin, Germany. Image: wikimedia.
GERMANY
750 billion euros total: with 100 billion for economic stability fund with direct stake in businesses
100 billion euros for public-sector development bank
400 billion euros to secure corporate debt vulnerable to default
FRANCE
300 billion euros guaranteed for corporate borrowing from commercial banks
45 billion euros to shore up businesses and employees
ITALY
400 billion euros of liquidity and bank loans to businesses
25 billion euros to suspend mortgage and loan repayments for families and companies, and funds for firms to pay workers on furlough or layoff.
SPAIN
200 billion euros divided in half with 50% government-backed credit for businesses/50% to help vulnerable people
700 million euros program to suspend evictions for six months after emergency is lifted
UNITED KINGDOM
200 billion pounds ($248 billion) of bond purchases
interest rate cut to 0.10% Bank of England
Bank of England doubled corporate bond purchase program to 20 billion pounds
Bank of England pledge to buy commercial paper with maturity of up to 1 year for businesses with pre-crisis investment grade credit
330 billion pounds in loan guarantees to business including paying 80% of staff salaries
Allowing businesses to temporarily retain 30 billion pounds of VAT (value added tax)
CANADA
Reduced overnight interest rates to 0.25%
Pledged purchase of Government of Canada securities – C$5 billion per week
C$50 billion credit for insured mortgages
C$10 billion for business support
C$150 billion for morgtages
C$55 billion for tax deferrals for businesses and families
C$27 billion aid for workers and low-income households
Government payment of up to 75% of salaries for workers in small and mid-sized businesses
Japan. Image: wikimedia.
JAPAN
Bank of Japan one-year zero-rate program to financial insitutions
Y430 billion for small and mid-sized businesses
Funding upgrades of medical facilities
Pay working parents forced to take leave due to school closures
Stimulus package of Y108 trillion ($993 billion) with cash payouts to households, small businesses; total package is equal to 20% of Japan’s economic output
CHINA
Yuan 2.8 trillion for infrastructure investment, backed by local bonds (19 March).
People’s Bank of China cut reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for small banks by 100 basis points. Worth about 400 billion yuan; cut will be in two phases, 15 April then 15 May 2020.
500 billion yuan ($71 billion) for re-lending and re-discount quotas
350 billion yuan for increased loan quota for businesses
Cut cash reserve requirements for banks, releasing 550 billion yuan
Also ruled: expand budget deficit, issue more bonds, drop interest rates, delay loan repayments, reduce supply-chain bottlenecks, and encourage renewed consumption
INDIA
1.7 trillion rupee ($22 billion) for food security and direct cash transfers. (26 March)
Reserve Bank of India cut repo rate by 75 basis points to 4.40%
SOUTH KOREA
100 trillion won economic rescue package (7 April) including 29 trillion won in loans to small and mid-sized businesses, and 20 trillion won to buy corporate bonds and commercial paper
36 trillion won in loans to exporters hurt by virus shutdown
9.1 trillion won ($7.5 billion) cash payments to most families
17.7 trillion won to boost consumption
INDONESIA
$24.9 billion for social welfare to 10 million household for food and energy discounts, and 3 percentage point cut in corporate tax rate (to 22%)
Bank Indonesia cut seven-day reverse repurchase rate to 25 basis points to 4.50%
Central bank cut reserve requirement ratio by 200 bps for banks (and 50 bps for Islamic banks)
AUSTRALIA
A$90 billion ($56 billion) funding for banks at rate of 0.25%
A$15 billion program for residential mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities
Reserve Bank of Australia cut rates in two steps for total to 0.25%, and introduced QE with a target of 0.25% for bond yields
A$66 billion for companies and welfare
A$17 billion for apprentices, small business, retirees
A$130 billion for wage support for 6 million workers
A$715 million support for airlines
Sydney Opera House, Australia. Image: wikimedia.
BRAZIL
1.2 trillion reals ($231 billion) for central bank purchase of bank loan portfolios, repurchases of dollar-denominated sovereign bonds
150 billion reals for most vulnerable people and jobs
51 billion reals to allow companies affected by virus to reduce worker pay and hours, with a goal of preserving jobs (1 April)
SOUTH AFRICA
South African Reserve Bank (SARB) cut rate by 100 basis points to 5.25%, and then reduced again (14 April 2020) to 4.25%
1.2 billion rand ($66 million) for small farms to keep up food production
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
$50 billion to help low-income and emerging market countries
“The Great Lockdown Economic Retraction: A global map of the outlook of retraction and growth of nations across the world for 2020.” From IMF Outlook. Image: Foxterria, Wikimedia.
FUNDING THE FUTURE
Add up all those stimulus packages, monetary funds, loans, and that’s a lot of money, much of it supporting business interest rates and workers’ jobs. Yet, with the exception of instances where the industry is targeted (agriculture, transport, finance), there are few stipulations on how the money should be directed. For example, there could be payments and supportive programs for innovations in energy or water, decarbonizing transport, or reducing air pollution.
Yes, there has been disaster response to unfortunate hot-spots suffering tsunami or hurricane damage, earthquake or fire devastation. But that was in a region. Yes, there has been systemic change, world-wide, in some industries due to disaster; after 9/11, airports and security changed permanently, but that was just one sector.
In 2020, the whole world changed at once. With everyone hit by the corona virus, new ways of communicating and working evolved. Cities rethought transport. Fossil fuel loss dropped and cities saw cleaner air. Sadly, it was all due to death and sickness. But as a result, to rebuild after the virus, every country on earth has raised new money, and new hope.
Where money goes to an industry, how can that sector direct renewal to the future we know is coming: de-carbonized and sustainable? Of course, some of the funds must support present production lines and supply-chains, but surely a percentage could be directed forward to future goals.
What would you do with this one-time funding to rebuild the world?
Ivanova, Maria. “Coasts and Communities.” Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship, National Science Foundation. University of Massachusetts Boston, Center for Global Governance and Sustainability, Global Environmental Governance Project. https://www.umb.edu/igert/about.
Steil, Benn. The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order. Princeton University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780691149097
Appreciation to the University of Massachusetts Boston, especially Dean David Cash, Professor Maria Ivanova, and Director Rebecca Herst.
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G. Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unpo
India is rebuilding trains as rolling hospital wards, refitting coaches into care facilities with 16 beds. Indian Railways is modifying 20,000 carriage coaches, for a total of 320,000 new isolation pods, announcing the program on the same week COVID-19 cases increased by 1,637 infections and 38 deaths. Sports stadiums are also being deployed: Assam’s Sarusajai stadium will hold 1,000 patients, while Chandigarth’s complex will become a temporary jail to impound those who violate lockdown policy. (Singh 2020).
India’s rail system. Image: wikimedia.
Using trains for public health and education is not a new idea. When the Canadian Pacific Railway opened, special purpose carriages were a regular part of the route. Trains brought health care and education to previously unreachable places. Children saw a teacher once-a-week in a classroom car, then homeschooled until the next whistle stop. The Trans-Siberian railway and Russia’s rail system offered options like mobile therapy.
FIVE REASONS FOR USING TRAINS AS MOBILE MEDICAL SYSTEM
Trains, with their flexible number of carriages, can be configured to custom purposes.
Another factor? Speed and access. Amtrak is the only railroad in North America that holds right-of-way service speed: many stretches of track are certified and maintained for speeds up to 100+ miles per hour (160+ kph) on routes with no other traffic.
A third factor? Idle. With the advent of air travel and the building of the United States Federal Highway System, trains were already second class. Add stay-at-home lockdowns and social distancing for those few who must travel, and you’ve got a lot of idle equipment.
A fourth factor? Expensive to maintain idle. Planes, buses, and trains are all idle. Planes can be parked, buses can use roads already serviced for general vehicles. But trains require tracks and that means specialized maintenance.
A fifth factor? Subsidized, anyway.
“Red Cross Train, France” by Harold Septimus Power, 1918. Imperial War Museum, Art.IWM.ART 1031 Wikimedia
Proposal: use Amtrak train network as a mobile medical system. India shows that trains can easily be retrofitted as hospital wards, isolation units. And why not rolling ventilator-ready beds with the respiratory equipment already installed? Governor Andrew Cuomo announced New York will send medical equipment to the next peak place. The virus is a rolling phenomenon: a rolling response is a good option.
Amtrak system map. Image: wikimedia
The United States Transcontinental Railroad once transformed and united a country. Now, can rails help address the virus crisis? Afterwards, American rail needs rebuilding, anyway; repurposing medical cars will offer a chance to rethink Amtrak. Will Japan’s Shinkansen, upgraded with maglev trains reaching 374 mph for the Tokyo Olympics, be an inspiration? One hopeful step is Amtrak’s strategic agreement with Alstom (2016) to produce 28 next-gen equipment to replace the Acela Express now entering 20 years of service. The new transit format is due to roll out in 2022, a timeframe parallel with virus response needed now. Many countries have train systems; this idea is scalable. But at the moment, the United States is experiencing an urgent medical crisis. We need every idea and every option. Let’s use sections of Amtrak as a mobile medical system.
Bridges can be rebuilt, but what about the water they span? There may be good news: oceans could return to vitality if we rebuild supportive habitats and conditions, according to a new study citing Sustainable Development Goal 14 of the United Nations. To save oceans, we will need to rebuild marine life support systems.Nature article authors include Carlos Duarte of King Abdullah University, Gregory Britten of MIT, and Robinson Fulweiler of Boston University, as well as worldwide team. Here are the key components:
International Seabed. It’s 54% of earth’s land, under the oceans. What is the future of that environment? Image: noaa.gov.
An area of concern that receives less attention than merited is the International Seabed. While waters up to 200 nautical miles (a nautical mile is 1.1508 statute (or land-based) miles) are the territory of individual coastal nations, the waters and seabed beyond belong to everyone, even land-locked nations. Present explorations measuring valuable ore deposits like cobalt, copper, and manganese may soon lead to mining licensing by the International Seabed Authority. Recently, some rivers like New Zealand’s Whanganui River have been granted legal personhood rights: will similar rulings affect and protect oceans?
Some of Europe’s port cities. Image: wikimedia.
Oceans are transit ways of civilization; ports like Boston, Hamburg, Jakarta, Lagos, New York, Rotterdam, Singapore, Yangon, became centers of exchange and urban life. Coastal cities may lead the way in rebuilding urban architecture for sea-rise, and also take special interest in rebuilding the sea itself.
Duarte, Carlos M. et al. “Rebuilding marine life.” 1 April 2020. Nature, 580, 39-61 (2020). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2146-7 and https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586=020=2146-7. Includes videos.
