abichi

Welcome! This is the first in a series of posts about biorenewable resources, open to the average teen or adult interested in sustainability.

Climate Change

Weather gets mixed up with climate change, but it is the short term: what happens in weeks or months. Climate is the long term: broad patterns over decades. As many scientists have seen, humans have impacted our climate by increasing greenhouse gases, which traps more heat to the Earth. You might wonder, “How have humans increased the amount of greenhouse gases?” Well it’s a matter of two things: land use and the Carbon Cycle. Since starting largescale civilizations, humans have changed the land around us to accommodate. One way is by creating cities. Then there are a lot less plants to soak up carbon dioxide, and a lot more surfaces that have a low albedo (ability to reflect heat) causing the urban heat island effect.1 We have also converted a lot of land to use for agriculture. This stirs up and releases any carbon that the trees and plants had been storing in the soil.¹ Urban Heat Island Effect in Different Regions The Carbon Cycle is the process through which carbon travels throughout the Earth. The “Fast” Carbon Cycle refers to the transfer of carbon through plants and animals via the food chain and respiration, which releases carbon dioxide. There’s also the “Slow” Carbon Cycle, which refers to the long term storage of carbon in fossilized organic material. These fossils are stored for millions of years.² When the industrial age hit, humans started burning that stored carbon and releasing it into the fast carbon cycle, changing the balance. You can see carbon dioxide levels over time and by Latitude here. Summary of some ways carbon travels Since 1880 (industrial revolution), the Earth has been rising 0.2^oC per decade. We are starting to see effects of this due to more heat meaning more energy for things like hurricanes. Sea levels are rising, growing seasons are lengthening, and more droughts and heat waves are occurring.¹ This year has seen a lot of effects, from extreme wildfires to supercharged hurricanes. Across California, the average autumn temperatures have increased by about 1^oC in the last 40 years.³ There have also already been 13 formed in the Atlantic, more than ever before September.³

Your Intro to Renewables

There’s renewable resources like solar and wind energy, but there’s also biorenewables. Biorenewables specifically come from carbon-based sources. These can be used for electricity, or to create materials like cotton. To help climate change, renewable resources are essential. The effects are already being noticed. At Norwegian University of Science and Technology, it was found that in high consumption countries like the U.S., “there was a 5.5 times higher environmental impact over the world average”. But countries like Sweden, France, Japan and Norway that had nuclear and hydroelectric power had less.⁴ That is not to say that if it’s renewable it is completely ethical though. In the production of technology for some of our renewable energy, metals like copper are used. The extraction of materials such as these can be harmful for the environment. In a study on open pit mining, concerns were sinkholes, erosion, groundwater contamination, some release of particles into the surrounding atmosphere, and disruption of biodiversity.⁵

Pictured: largest copper mine in the world in Escondida, Chile (Lesson 2)

Consumption & Its Effects

To live is to consume, especially in our interconnected world. Unfortunately, that consumption comes with a price, part of it being an environmental, and in turn, human effect: Consumption results in 60% global greenhouse gases, and up to 80% of the water use.⁴ The biggest contributors were food, especially meat (1 kg beef takes 15,415 liters of water.⁴ Globally, 90 billion tons material/year, equalling 65 lbs/person/day are used. Although, wealthy countries consumer 10x more than developing countries.⁶

Table of Annual Consumption of Select Raw Materials

Can Anything Be Done?

By Consumers

• Reduce: only buy what you need & don’t waste
• Reuse: what you can and as much as possible
• Recycle: anything you can including, papers, plastic, and especially metals
• Change your habits: here’s an excel file for evaluating your own carbon footprint (click to go to file and download)

By Producers

• Use materials as efficiently as possible: improve processes and reduce amounts of materials needed
• Extend the lives of products
• Substitute less sustainable materials (paper instead of plastic)
• Use the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for products to see what parts of the products can be made more sustainable ⁷

Works Cited

1. “L5. Climate Change, BBE 1002, UMN”. Extracted from https://canvas.umn.edu/courses/192925/pages/l5-climate-change?module_item_id=4451272
2. “L4. Carbon Cycle, BBE 1002, UMN”. Extracted from https://canvas.umn.edu/courses/192925/pages/l4-carbon-cycle?module_item_id=4451266
3. “What’s behind August 2020’s extreme weather? Climate change and bad luck”. (August, 2020). Extracted from https://www.sciencenews.org/article/2020-extreme-weather-climate-change-hurricane-derecho-wildfire
4. “Consumers have Huge Environmental Impact”. (February, 2016). Extracted from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160224132923.htm
5. “Environmental impact assessment of open pit mining in Iran” (July, 2009). Extracted from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227332044_Environmental_impact_assessment_of_open_pit_mining_in_Iran
6. “L2. Our Resources, Our Consumption, BBE 1002, UMN”. Extracted from https://canvas.umn.edu/courses/192925/pages/l2-our-resources-our-consumption?module_item_id=4451255
7. “L6. Environmental Assessment through LCA, BBE 1002, UMN”. Extracted from https://canvas.umn.edu/courses/192925/pages/l6-environmental-assessment-through-lca?module_item_id=4451278