Thursday, March 26, 2020

BEFORE COVID-19
How Health Systems Are Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change
by Alice Chen and Vivek Murthy September 18, 2019
JW LTD/Getty Images

The human and health impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Extreme weather events are disrupting more and more lives and businesses while also exacerbating chronic health conditions like asthma, expanding the range of infectious diseases, and worsening mental illness. In 2018, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that to avoid catastrophic changes to our climate, we need to cut our greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and get to net zero emissions by 2050. It’s time for all of us to take the threat and opportunity of climate change seriously, but how can businesses make meaningful change? How does sustainability fit into the competing priorities so many of us face? We spoke with leaders at four major U.S. health systems — Cleveland Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, Boston Medical Center (BMC), and Partners Healthcare — that are finding solutions.

Climate change strikes at the very core of health systems whose mission is to keep people healthy. They are also affected financially and structurally by the rising frequency of extreme weather events, and they are major contributors to carbon emissions. Even distant climate events can impact them. Consider what happened when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017. The storm killed people and knocked out power. It also disrupted supply chains. Suddenly, across the United States, doctors and patients faced shortages of critical intravenous fluids and medications because Puerto Rico manufactures IV bags for the rest of the country, and the plants were severely damaged in the storm. For months, nurses had to resort to standing at the patient bedside slowly injecting medications by syringe instead of letting the medication drip in from an IV bag.

On all fronts, health care systems are on the front lines of climate change. But they are not sitting idle in the face of these threats. The leaders we spoke with are on track to make their facilities carbon neutral between 2020 and 2027 while building climate resiliency, even as they expand their operations, tend to the bottom line, and provide excellent health care. How are they managing that? And what lessons can businesses across sectors glean from their successes?

Mission-driven Success

As with any business initiative, taking action on climate change starts with the mission. For health systems, climate change directly impacts the health of patients and communities. We are only as healthy as the environment in which we live, and as climate change worsens, more and more people face the health consequences of wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and forced migration globally from failed crops, droughts, and resulting political unrest.

For John Messervy, the Director of Capital and Facilities Planning of Partners Healthcare, the biggest local threat is water. Boston is situated where two major ocean currents collide: melting Arctic ice spills from the north and meets stronger storms coming from the south. This puts the city at particular risk for sea level rise and catastrophic floods. Preparing for this — and doing what they can to prevent it — is a vital part of serving the health system’s mission. “The people of Boston aren’t fleeing because there will be flooding in the future,” Messervy told us. “It’s our responsibility to build our response plans to keep serving the community, no matter what happens.”

Also in Boston, Bob Biggio, Senior Vice President of Facilities and Support Services of Boston Medical Center, motivates his team by reminding them that everything they do goes back to serving patients and the community. “My north star is the hospital’s mission to make Boston the world’s healthiest urban population by 2030,” he said. “This means doing our part – through carbon reduction and resiliency – to protect our patients from the impacts of climate change.”

In Cleveland, Ohio, Jon Utech, Senior Director of the Office for a Healthy Environment at the Cleveland Clinic, conveys to people across the organization and community that the magnitude of climate change means that everyone needs to engage. “Climate change is a clear and present danger now,” Utech said. “We need to be ready to respond to immediate and increased threats such as hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and tornados. Our caregivers need to understand how climate change is impacting disease patterns and population vulnerabilities to better care for our patients.”

Part of what is driving health systems to take action is that they are experiencing the serious impacts of climate change even now. Kathy Gerwig, Vice President of Employee Safety, Health and Wellness and Environmental Stewardship Officer of Kaiser Permanente, recounted to us how their Santa Rosa Medical Center in California was impacted by catastrophic wildfires in 2017. Two hundred employees lost their homes, and the hospital had to close for weeks to clean and restock. During that time, people in the area found themselves struggling with smoke-related illness and trying to manage their medical needs without having their hospital to turn to. “The people who suffer the most from climate impacts are low income, very young, very old, and people with chronic conditions,” she said. ”In a healthcare setting, we have a responsibility to think about that.”

Powerful Wins

With a goal of becoming carbon neutral, health systems are showing us how big– and small– changes can make this a reality. At the Cleveland Clinic, Utech found two pieces of low hanging fruit when he began to look at how his hospital could reduce energy usage: lightbulbs and computers. His first step was to switch all lightbulbs from fluorescent lights to lower-energy LEDs. This change had the side benefit of improving light quality (appreciated by doctors, nurses, and patients alike!) and also saved $2.5 million a year with a short 4-year payback on energy costs. What’s more, employees are now devoting far less time to changing light bulbs since they burn out less frequently. Still, Utech had to dig deeper. His next target was similarly ubiquitous: the hospital’s computers. Medical grade computers must always be on so that doctors and nurses can access them without delay. With more than 50,000 medical grade computers at the hospital, this meant a lot of energy was going to being constantly ready every day. Utech installed software that would automatically put them to sleep—but keep essential services on standby– when they weren’t being used. This generated a savings of $400,000 each year.


Utech’s energy assessment uncovered still another major energy use that could be reduced: air. This was the Cleveland Clinic’s largest energy pit, as it is in many hospitals. To control infection risk, patient rooms are required to have six complete air exchanges per hour, and operating rooms need 15 to 20 per hour. All that air has to be filtered, humidified or dehumidified, and heated or cooled. But Utech found that many operating rooms at the Cleveland Clinic were doing 30 or more air exchanges an hour without any medical benefit and even when the operating rooms were not being used. By installing a system that adjusts the air exchanges based on whether operating rooms are in use and exchanges only as much air as is necessary, the Cleveland Clinic reduced energy costs by $2 million a year.

The Cleveland Clinic is not alone in its focus on energy efficiency; all of the systems we interviewed are aggressively cutting unnecessary energy usage. For the energy they do need, they are switching to renewable energy sources, which turn out to be surprisingly affordable. Kaiser Permanente is even on track to save money by establishing long-term power purchase agreements in wind and solar, including one contract that will power 27 of their 39 hospitals and build new utility-scale wind and solar farms and one of the country’s largest battery-storage systems. Partners HealthCare is enabling the construction of a new large windfarm in New Hampshire. They expect to purchase 75 percent of what that facility produces. As large businesses, these health systems are helping to transition the power grid for everyone.

Where is your business using energy that you don’t need to use? What can you replace with renewables? Tell us on Twitter @HarvardBiz

Building for the Future

As weather-related emergencies increase, hospitals must ensure that they can stay open and that patients can get to them. In this regard, the 2012 storm, Hurricane Sandy, was a stark warning for hospitals everywhere. NYU Langone Medical Center, located in Manhattan and within the flood zone, was ready for up to a 12-foot storm surge. They relocated or sent home hundreds of patients and prepared to ride out the storm with those who remained. But when the surge hit 14 feet, buildings filled with water, the power grid went down, and the backup generators sputtered and stopped. Suddenly doctors and nurses were racing to evacuate more than 200 patients, carrying them down staircases lit by flashlights and ferrying them by ambulance to other area hospitals.

After seeing what happened to NYU, Partners commissioned a study to identify extreme weather hazards in Boston and figure out what they needed to do to mitigate the impact of those events on their facilities. Their new Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, which is built on the waterfront, became a laboratory for creating the first climate-resilient hospital. The first floor of the hospital is 30 inches above the 500-year flood mark, and even if it were to flood, the damage would be minimal and the rest of the hospital could remain fully occupied and operational. It incorporates energy-efficient features including heavy insulation and large windows that provide plenty of daylight. Lower energy usage means the backup generator, which is located safely on the upper levels, can power the hospital for a longer time if the power grid goes down. All this might sound like an expensive undertaking, but because they took climate resilience into account in the initial design, the additional cost was just 1.5% of the total cost of the building.

Across the country in California, Kaiser Permanente was also building a new hospital. Their goal was to set a new standard for combining a smaller carbon footprint with a superior patient experience as they designed the new San Diego Medical Center. At this hospital, 1,500 solar panels on the roof supplement its highly efficient on-site generator. All the lights are energy-saving LEDs, including programmed lights in patient rooms that mimic natural variation in sunlight to help patients reset their circadian rhythms and promote healing. Outdoor areas include nearly two miles of outdoor walking paths and are landscaped with native plants that are watered with reclaimed rainwater.

These decisions helped create one of the top environmentally rated hospitals in the world. Serving more than 610,000 Kaiser Permanente members in the area, the hospital achieved platinum certification by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the most widely used green building rating system. But the San Diego Medical Center isn’t only an environmental win for Kaiser Permanente, it is a financial win, too. The nominal incremental cost of achieving LEED status has been far outweighed by energy cost savings.

Building for sustainability is not limited to new construction, and in fact, reducing the carbon footprint of existing buildings has to be a part of our global solution. BMC has found a creative way to reduce their carbon footprint while improving health by introducing a rooftop farm growing lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and cucumbers that even houses two beehives. With just 2,568 square feet of growing space, the farm provides 6,000 pounds of fresh, local produce every year to the cafeteria, patient trays, and BMC’s preventive food pantry. Plus, the green roof reduces heating and cooling costs for the building and doubles the expected life of the roofing materials.

What are the opportunities for your business to design for sustainability and resilience for the future? Tell us on Twitter @HarvardBiz

Finding the Money

Not-for profit hospitals have slim margins– in 2018 the median operating margin was 1.7 percent. So how did these health systems convince their boards and finance departments that sustainability is a responsible use of resources?

Many steps toward sustainability are much more affordable than you might expect. In fact, energy efficiency projects generally have a positive return on investment. Cleveland Clinic started with a half million dollars a year for energy-saving projects, a relatively small sum for a system with a $9 billion annual revenue. Utech’s facilities team then worked closely with the financial team to make a business case for payback. In 2016, the Cleveland Clinic was able to launch a $7.5 million Green Revolving Fund that pays for energy-saving and sustainability projects. The savings they generate are reinvested into more energy saving projects.


Another strategy for funding is to share the cost with other partners. For BMC to afford their energy-efficient backup power plant, Biggio got the local energy company, Eversource, to chip in some incentives. They then partnered with the city of Boston, promising to provide backup power for critical police and emergency communications infrastructure. This agreement led to BMC receiving a resilience grant from the state. In total, 30 percent of the cost of the plant was covered by incentives and grants, which made the whole project affordable.

Investors help too. BMC and Kaiser Permanente have issued green bonds for their projects. Biggio noted that BMC’s bonds were three to four times oversubscribed, as investors clamor for green options. More than $600 billion in green bonds have been issued since 2007, and the market is continuing to grow as more municipalities, companies, and even nations issue them.

Beyond helping with financing, partners in the public and private sector have been integral to the health system’s sustainability efforts. Cleveland Clinic partners locally to increase tree coverage in the city and advocates alongside other businesses to get Ohio to maintain and strengthen clean energy and energy efficiency standards. Partners Healthcare and BMC are part of “Climate Ready Boston” and “Carbon Free Boston” that regularly bring together representatives across sectors to make the city more resilient and carbon neutral by 2050. Kaiser Permanente is building partnerships with food distributors, hospitals, school systems, and other large purchasers to increase the demand for local, sustainable food options across all market sectors. In the systems we interviewed, sustainability began at home but reached outward, too, including lobbying the U.S. federal government to play a stronger leadership role. All these efforts to address climate change have been strengthened by a sector-wide collaborative known as Health Care Without Harm which has helped more than 500 U.S. hospitals by creating a community of learning and support.

What partnerships and financing mechanisms are available in your sector and region? Tell us on Twitter @HarvardBiz

Get Started and Do More

In the face of the drastic consequences of climate change and all that has to be done, why should we be optimistic that we can turn the tide? Because as long as the road ahead may be, we have already traveled far, powered by the energy and ingenuity of organizations and individuals around the world that are already making their impact. The health systems we profiled are part of this larger community that understands the urgency of climate change and has chosen to rise to the occasion. The question before us is can we all step up and meet the challenges of the present moment?

The world will not become carbon neutral or ready for every climate threat overnight, but we can get there if individuals and organizations choose to join the global movement to transform our world. We don’t have to have all the solutions right away. We just need to start somewhere. “You can’t go from 0 to 100 in a day or month but you can get ahead of the curve,” Utech, of Cleveland Clinic, said. “You can build on successes and build a track record.”

The momentum of climate change must be answered with equal or greater momentum of human achievement. That means taking action, small steps like changing lightbulbs, or big leaps like climate-smart facilities, wherever we can. This is what is necessary to safeguard our planet’s– and our own– health.



Alice Chen is an internal medicine physician and served as the Executive Director and founding board member of Doctors for America. Under her leadership, Doctors for America mobilized a movement of thousands of physicians and medical students in all 50 states to bring their patients’ experiences to policy makers and move the nation to put patients over politics to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, high quality health care and the means to lead a healthy life. She has served on the faculty at UCLA and George Washington University and as a Hauser Visiting Leader at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Center for Public Leadership. Dr. Chen resides in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Dr. Vivek Murthy, and their two young children.


Vivek Murthy served as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States from 2014 to 2017.An internal medicine physician and entrepreneur, Dr. Murthy has co-founded a number of organizations: VISIONS, an HIV/AIDS education program in India; Swasthya, a community health partnership in rural India training women as health providers and educators; software company TrialNetworks; and Doctors for America. Dr. Murthy resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Dr. Alice Chen, and their two young chil
OECD OP ED
Tackling the coronavirus (COVID-19)
Contributing to a global effort

What are the impacts and consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on our lives and our societies – and what are some of the solutions we can find to boost our healthcare systems, secure our businesses, maintain our jobs and education, and stabilise financial markets and economies?

COVID-19: Joint actions to win the war

The coronavirus pandemic is causing large-scale loss of life and severe human suffering. It is a public health crisis without precedent in living memory, which is testing our collective capacity to respond.

Read the op-ed
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The pandemic brings with it the third and greatest economic, financial and social shock of the 21st Century, after 9/11 and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. This shock brings a double whammy: a halt in production in affected countries, hitting supply chains across the world, and a steep drop in consumption together with a collapse in confidence. Stringent measures being applied, albeit essential to contain the virus, are thrusting our economies into an unprecedented “deep freeze” state, from which emergence will not be straightforward or automatic.

The most urgent priority is to minimise the loss of life and health. But the pandemic has also set in motion a major economic crisis that will burden our societies for years to come. In many places ambitious initial responses are underway, and this is commendable. But only a combined, coordinated international effort will meet the challenge.

The sheer magnitude of the current shock introduces an unprecedented complexity to economic forecasting. The OECD Interim Economic Outlook, released on 2 March 2020, made a first attempt to take stock of the likely impact of COVID-19 on global growth, but it now looks like we have already moved well beyond even the more severe scenario envisaged then. The behaviour of financial markets reflects the extraordinary uncertainty of the situation. It is looking increasingly likely that we will see sequential declines in global GDP--or regional GDPs-- in the current and next quarters of 2020. And while it is too early to tell how far-reaching an impact COVID19 will have on many developing countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, it is clear that even if they are fortunate enough to escape the brunt of the health crisis, they will suffer economically, just as they did after the 2008 crisis. We are closely monitoring events and will be updating our analysis regularly.

Compounding a global health crisis with a major economic and financial crisis will put large strains on our societies. Even after the worst of the health crisis has passed, people will be confronted with the jobs crisis that will ensue. Well before the outbreak, the global economy already exhibited a number of underlying vulnerabilities, which now risk worsening the downturn that COVID-19 has delivered. These include the high level of corporate debt and trade tensions between major economies. Another important vulnerability are the gaps in income, wealth and job stability in many countries, which threaten a large part of our populations. More than one third of OECD households are financially insecure, meaning they would fall into poverty if they had to forgo three months of their income. As for the trade restrictions that have proliferated in the last few years, these may not only affect badly-needed medical supplies in some settings but also generate supply-chain disruptions in food or other essential goods and services. More broadly, they increase the risk of a more severe outbreak, as well as of a deeper and longer-lasting recession.

Now is the time for urgent and large-scale responses, to be taken at sub-national, national and international levels. They must be launched at once, taking into account different time horizons and imperatives: a) the immediate need to address the public health crisis ; b) the subsequent need to get the economy up and running again; and c) the longer-term need for new policy approaches to repair the damage and ensure that we are better prepared for future shocks. The OECD is leveraging its multi-disciplinary expertise to guide and support such actions.

The COVID-19 crisis has laid bare stark weaknesses in our health care systems, from the number of intensive-care beds to the size of the workforce, the inability to provide enough masks and to deploy testing in some countries, and deficiencies in the research for and supply of drugs and vaccines.

Beyond the immediate health policy response, the world needs decisive and ambitious actions to mitigate the economic downturn and protect the most vulnerable. This is all about people: older people and the young, women and men, those on low income or no income, those who were already facing a difficult situation and who will be hit hardest.

Only with immediate, large-scale and co-ordinated actions will the economy be ready for a quick and vigorous restart. It is encouraging that many major efforts and initiatives have already been announced, but greater international co-ordination is fundamental to ensuring these initiatives produce the best results, reassure markets and support the most vulnerable countries. Co-ordination among Central Banks is commendable, the recent statement by the G7 is powerful and gives some clear directions and the G20 will be holding an extraordinary virtual Leaders’ meeting next week, but much more coordination, across the whole breadth of policy areas, is urgently needed.

The OECD calls for a sizeable, credible, internationally co-ordinated four-pronged effort to provide the necessary resources to deal with the immediate public health emergency, to buffer the economic shock and develop a path towards recovery.

Governments should ensure more international co-operation in responding to the health challenge. Impressive co-ordination in the scientific effort is ongoing but it needs to be complemented by measures to ensure that vaccines and treatments, after being developed and produced, get to people as quickly as possible. Had a vaccine for the SARS-CoV-1 been developed at the time, it would have accelerated the development of one for the current outbreak given that the two viruses are 80% similar. Today, regulatory agencies (the FDA in the US, the European EMA, among others) should work together to remove regulatory hurdles for vaccines and treatments.
Governments should advance joint policies, rather than taking them in an uncoordinated way. They should finance an immediate buffer to economies to cushion the negative impact and speed up the recovery. This includes immediate spending on:
Health care: extensive testing; treatment for all patients, regardless of whether they are insured or not; support to health-care workers; return of health-care retirees, while protecting high-risk groups; the enhanced provision of masks, ICUs and respirators, among others;
People: short-term employment schemes, reduced requirements to benefit from unemployment insurance, cash transfers to the self-employed and support to the most vulnerable;
Firms: charges and tax payment delays, temporary VAT reductions or deferrals, enhanced access to working capital through credit lines or state guarantees, special support packages for SMEs, especially those in services and tourism.


A well planned investment programme – co-ordinated among countries – notably in health research, development and infrastructures, should be given priority after the height of the crisis.
Central Banks have already launched bold actions to support the economy but financial regulation and supervision is another area where co-ordination could produce better outcomes. The economic dislocation caused by the COVID-19 crisis is hitting the functioning of financial markets, banks’ incomes and balance sheets. A co-ordinated approach to monitoring, diagnosing emerging strains and taking regulatory action would yield much more positive results than disjointed and inconsistent responses.
Everything must be done to restore confidence. While the key to that is bringing the virus outbreak under control, it would also help to address the factors that were sapping confidence even before COVID-19 appeared on the scene, including by removing trade restrictions.


Today, as part of the OECD’s response to this crisis, we are launching a platform that will provide timely and comprehensive information on policy responses in countries around the world, together with OECD advice, in some cases. We will also be releasing a series of policy briefs on a range of subjects in the context of the COVID-19 crisis: on vaccines, taxes, education, SMEs, etc. Thus, we hope to help governments learn from each other in real time, facilitate co-ordination, and contribute to the necessary global action when confronting this enormous collective challenge.

In our global world, many issues cannot be dealt with anymore within domestic boundaries, be it a virus, trade, migration, environmental damages or terrorism. Multilateral action creates positive spillovers that will be more effective for each country than if they acted alone.

We need a level of ambition similar to that of the Marshall plan – which created the OECD – and a vision akin to that of the New Deal, but now at the global level.

Cool heads, individual and collective discipline, a heightened sense of solidarity and a shared sense of purpose will allow us to overcome these unexpected and challenging circumstances.

Angel Gurría,
OECD Secretary-General
Birds are able to thrive in urban environments like towns and cities by developing bigger brains and more chicks

Researchers found that there are two key coping mechanisms birds use in cities 

One mechanism is to have large brains to better dodge human-made obstacles 

The other is to reproduce regularly and have more chics than in natural areas


By RYAN MORRISON FOR MAILONLINE PUBLISHED: 25 March 2020

To thrive in urban environments birds need to either develop large brains like seagulls or have more offspring like pigeons, a study finds.

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg say big brains or lots of offspring are the two strategies that are key to survive in an unnatural environment.

The team say a number of bird species face being driven to extinction by rising urbanisation but others seem to actually thrive around humans.

They found birds with larger brains are able to find new food sources and avoid human-made hazards more accurately than their smaller brained peers.


Those with smaller brains, such as pigeons had to rely on larger populations - so more offspring - to survive in a human dominated area.

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Pigeons on the street. Researchers say despite having small brains pigeons are able to thrive in urban environments by reproducing considerably more than they would in wild environments

The findings, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, could boost conservation efforts for different bird species as humans expand into more natural environments through urbanisation.

Lead author, Dr Ferran Sayol, of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, said cities are harsh environments for most species.

He said they offer much lower biodiversity than natural environments, mainly due to the impact of humans and human obstacles.

'The species that can tolerate cities are important because they are the ones that most humans will have contact with in their daily lives, and they can have important effects on the urban environment within our cities,' said Savol.

Coping with people's increasingly chaotic and busy lifestyles is difficult for birds and other creatures - making it harder to survive.

Our feathered friends either have to be more intelligent than their rural counterparts - or have more chicks.

The same phenomenon of larger brained and more sexed birds thriving ahead of others is not found in the country.

Understanding which bird species succeed has implications for saving them and sheds fresh light on those we share our neighbourhoods with.

Previous research has found birds with larger brains have a number of advantages.

This includes being able to find new food sources and avoid human-made hazards better than smaller-brained peers.

The new studied fills in a gap in knowledge - that is how pigeons and other species with small brains are able to flourish in cities.

Dr Sayol and colleagues analysed databases and museum collections containing brain and body size, maximum lifespans, global distribution and breeding frequency.

They contained details on more than 629 birds across 27 cities around the world and showed brain size plays a vital role - but it's not the only path to success.

'We've identified two ways for bird species to become urban dwellers,' said Sayol.

'On the one hand, species with large brains, like crows or gulls, are common in cities because large brain size helps them deal with the challenges of a novel environment.

'On the other hand, we also found small-brained species, like pigeons, can be highly successful if they have a high number of breeding attempts over their lifetimes.'

The latter represents an adaptation that prioritises a species' future reproductive success over its present survival.


Seagulls are able to survive in urban environments due to their larger than average brain that allows them to dodge human obstacles and scavenge for food

Interestingly, the study suggests the two strategies represent distinct ways of coping with urban environments - rather than being linked.

Birds with average brain size - relative to their body - are the least likely to live in cities, according to the Swedish researchers.

Unsurprisingly, both strategies are less common in natural environments.

Researchers are working to understand how these adaptations will change the behaviour and structure of urban bird communities in the future.

Dr Sayol said there are multiple strategies for adapting to urban habitats.

When considering the impacts of our increasingly urban future on our wild neighbours, it will be important to consider reproduction and brain size.

'In our study, we found a general pattern, but in the future, it could be interesting to understand the exact mechanisms behind it, for instance, which aspects of being intelligent are the most useful,' the researcher said.

'Understanding what makes some species better able to tolerate or even exploit cities will help researchers anticipate how biodiversity will respond as cities continue to expand.'

The research has been published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.
HOW DOES HEAVY METAL POISONING KILL BIRDS?

Birds are easily poisoned by the heavy metals found in their environment.

Each heavy metal causes distinct symptoms and affects birds differently.

The three heavy metals which commonly poison birds are lead, zinc, and iron.

Common symptoms that a bird is suffering from heavy metal poisoning are:
Constant thirst
Regurgitation of water
Listlessness
Weakness
Depression
Tremors
Loss of coordinated movements
Seizures

Zinc and iron are present in food and are required in small amounts for a healthy bird.

When abnormal amounts are present in the bird's body, the same heavy metals can lead to poisoning.

Lead poisoning is no longer as common as it once was thanks to increased awareness of the dangers.

Heavy metal poisoning with iron can lead to iron storage disease, which causes the the nutrient to deposit in the internal organs of the body.

This can lead to liver problems and damage other organs.

Source: PetMD

Dramatic satellite footage shows 'notable drop' in air pollution over Italy after coronavirus lockdown restricts transport and industrial activity

  • Levels of nitrogen dioxide emissions were down across northern Italy in March
  • The ESA Copernicus Sentinel-5 satellite spotted the emission levels changing 
  • ESA shared an animation showing the dramatic change from January to March 
  • It coincided with the announcement of a lockdown in Italy due to coronavirus 
  • Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?

Dramatic footage from the European Space Agency Copernicus satellite reveals a 'notable drop' in air pollution over Italy after the coronavirus lockdown.
ESA shared an animation that showed a significant change in the pollution levels over Italy between January and March, particularly over Po Valley in the north. 
In an attempt to reduce the spread of the deadly disease, Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced a lockdown of the entire country.  
The animation is made with data from the a special instrument called Tropomi on the Copernicus Sentinel-5 satellite that maps traces of noxious gases in the atmosphere.

Italy closed schools, restaurants, bars, museums and other venues - as well as limited large gatherings - all of which reduced the number of polluting activities.

ESA's Claus Zehner, Sentinel-5P mission manager, said, 'The decline in nitrogen dioxide emissions over the Po Valley in northern Italy is particularly evident.

'Although there could be slight variations in the data due to cloud cover and changing weather, we are very confident that the reduction in emissions that we can see, coincides with the lockdown in Italy causing less traffic and industrial activities.'

Similar changes in pollution levels were noted by NASA researcher Santiago Gasso when studying other data from Copernicus.

He said: 'In one month, there is a clear decrease of NO2 levels (a pollution marker) in northern Italy according to the satellite sensor.'


‹ SLIDE ME ›

There was a notable drop in Nitrogen Dioxide over Italy between January and March. By March, in line with the lockdown in the Italy, the level of nitrogen dioxide (orange on the map) had started to drop

The satellite that captured the data is the first Copernicus mission dedicated to monitoring our atmosphere.

Its Tropomi instrument maps a range of trace gases such as nitrogen dioxide, ozone, formaldehyde, sulphur dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide and aerosols.

All of these gases affect the air we breathe and therefore our health, says ESA.

The same ESA satellite also revealed a drop in air pollution over China with tiny particles slahed in the wake of coronavirus.

The country's government closed down much of its industrial activity and restricted air and car travel to limit the spread of the killer virus.


The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) observed a decrease of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) for February relative to the previous three years of between 20 and 30 per cent, Copernicus said in a statement.

PM2.5 is one of the most important air pollutants regarding health impacts according to the World Health Organization.

Nitrogen dioxide is a noxious gas which is released during fuel combustion and emitted by cars, power plants and industrial facilities.

It forms when fossil fuels such as coal, gas or diesel are burned at high temperatures and can cause a range of harmful effects on the lungs including increased inflammation of the airways and a greater risk of asthma attacks.


Satellite images compared this February's air quality with the same month from 2017 and 2019 and found a decrease in the amount of PM2.5 emissions in China of up to 30 per cent (pictured, the percentage difference as shown by the colour bar at the top)

Air quality researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Fei Liu said: 'This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event.'

'Given the growing importance and need for the continuous monitoring of air quality, the upcoming Copernicus Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5 missions will monitor key air quality trace gases and aerosols,' the agency said.

'These missions will provide information on air quality, stratospheric ozone and solar radiation, as well as climate monitoring.'

Josef Aschbacher, ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programmes, says the Tropomi instrument on the Copernicus Sentinel satellite was used to capture the changing atmosphere over Italy.

'It's the most accurate instrument measuring air pollution from space,' he said.

'These measurements, globally available thanks to the free and open data policy, provide crucial information for citizens and decision makers.'







Smog has dropped in northern Italy over a three-week period - February 14 (top left), February 24 (top right), March 4 (bottom left) and March 8 (bottom right) - following a month of coronavirus restrictions. The orange shading shows a heavy concentration of air pollution

Medical staff checks the body temperature of a woman in front of the Molinette hospital in Turin as Italy clamps down on public events and travel to halt spread of the virus

Europe is now the 'epicentre' of coronavirus with more daily cases on the continent than China was suffering at the height of its outbreak, the World Health Organisation said today.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the stark assessment today as he bemoaned the 'tragic milestone' of 5,000 global deaths from Covid-19.

He added that Europe now has 'more reported virus cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China'.

In Italy, which is already in lockdown, Catholic churches in Rome have now been shut as the Vatican falls in line with the rest of the country.

Football fixtures across Europe have been taking place behind closed doors amid calls for the Euro 2020 tournament to be postponed.

Meanwhile, some European passengers were boarding the last flights to America this morning before Donald Trump's unexpected travel ban comes into force tonight.

Bulgaria's state of emergency involves the shutting of all shops - except food stores and pharmacies - shopping malls, casinos, bars and restaurants with immediate effect until March 29.
THE BOOK THAT INFLUENCED GRETA THUNBERG 
Climate challenge– the safety’s off
The world is getting warmer, and it´s very likely that this
is the product of human emissions of greenhouse gases.
That is the conclusion of the UN’s climate panel, which
links warming to rising sea levels, shrinking ice and the
risk of rapid and unpredictable changes. But when does
man’s impact on the climate become dangerous, and
what is at stake? Is the EU energy and climate policy a
toothless tiger? Is carbon capture and storage a solution
or just a smokescreen? Is the threat to the climate an
opportunity for companies?
How do different scientists view the matter?
Read this book to find out!

www.formasfokuserar.se
Climate challenge
– the safety’s off
Climate challenge
ISBN 978-91-540-6038-2
Climate challenge
– the safety’s off
The Swedish Research Council for Environment,
Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning
https://formas.se/download/18.462d60ec167c69393b91df48/1549956092666/climate_challenge_the_safetys_off.pdf

https://formas.se/en/start-page.html


The Ecological Impact of Climate Change on Polar Bears

By Megan Ray Nichols Mar 10 2020


Image Credit: FloridaStock/Shutterstock.com

The starving polar bear has become one of the most famous images of climate change and of the impact that rising temperatures have on life in the Arctic.

Polar bears, which are currently listed as vulnerable on the Red List of Threatened Species and considered at high risk of endangerment in the wild, have traditionally been considered an animal that is one of the most susceptible to environmental changes. However, in 2015, researchers found that the species population in the South Beaufort Sea had declined by 40% from 2001 to 2010.

New research has given us an even better picture of the impact climate change has on polar bears.
The Current Impact of Climate Change on Polar Bears

Experts have linked the decline in polar bear populations to receding sea ice. In January 2020, the Arctic ice sea extent was around 770,000 square kilometers below the 1981 to 2010 averages for the month. However, until recently, researchers did not fully grasp why the decline of ice had such an effect on the animals. New information has provided a clearer picture.

A 2018 study provided a metabolic analysis of the species by tracking nine free-range polar bears over two years. During this period, researchers found that the animals' caloric needs are more than 60% greater than previously believed and they burn through around 12,325 calories per day. Because of this need, their diet consists almost entirely of calorie-dense ringed and bearded seals, whose populations are also declining as the result of sea ice loss.

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When land-fast sea ice melts, it forces polar bears back onto land, where they do not have access to seals. While these bears are known to hunt and scavenge on land when seals are scarce, the food they find such as goose eggs, caribou, and whale carcasses washed ashore, cannot support their calorific needs. As a result, polar bears effectively begin to fast, struggling to keep themselves at a healthy weight.

One bear tracked by the researchers lost more than 44 pounds during the study and jumped into the sea in a failed attempt to catch a passing seal. More than half of the bears tracked by researchers lost body weight over the study period.

Researchers currently expect polar bear populations to decrease by more than two-thirds by 2050, bringing the total polar population below 10,000. However, this new study suggests that because the animals need more food than previously thought, climate change may have an even more significant impact.

Other new research makes further predictions even lower. For example, a recent study found that malnourished polar bears tend to have fewer cubs and that those cubs tend to have lower survival rates.

Experts do not fully understand the effect that ice loss is having on polar bear behavior. As the ice melts, these bears become predictable and harder to track. Better technology that helps scientists track their movement may help improve our knowledge in the near future.
Melting Ice May Lead to Other Threats

Other newer threats that have arisen as the result of ice loss could have further implications on polar bear populations.

For the past few years, the Arctic sea ice extent has regularly tracked below average. As a result, the Northern Sea, which was previously inaccessible to ships not accompanied by icebreakers, has opened up. The result has been steadily increasing numbers of cargo ships passing through the Northern Sea route: a cause of serious concern for conservationists and ecologists.

For instance, a total of 94 boats sailed the waters in the last week of August 2019, a vast majority of which followed the western parts of the route, where ice vanished in July.

Organizations such as the European Federation for Trade and Environment have raised concerns about the potential environmental impacts that increased shipping could have on the Arctic, including oil pollution from the hulls of unreinforced ships damaged by sea ice, or the release of black carbon by cargo ships. This gas can have severe impacts on both animal and plant life. Plus, when it falls to the ground with precipitation, such as rain, it darkens the surface of snow and ice, reducing reflection, warming the snow, and quickening melting.
The Future for Polar Bears and the Arctic

As the acceleration of climate change, increased sea ice melt is not inevitable; while the current numbers look grim, researchers say we have not passed any kind of tipping point that guarantees sea ice loss.

Experts say atmospheric carbon dioxide is one of the primary drivers of increased temperatures and has led to the loss of sea ice that polar bears depend on. Regulations and initiatives that reduce emissions or sequester carbon dioxide currently in the atmosphere could help prevent further ice loss and save the habitats of both polar bears and the species they depend on.

References and Further Reading

USGS. (2014) New Scientific Study Supports that Capture-based Research is Safe for Polar Bears. [Online] Available at: https://www.usgs.gov/news/new-scientific-study-supports-capture-based-research-safe-polar-bears (Accessed on 6 March 2020).

A. M. Pagano, G. M. Durner,K. D. Rode, T. C. Atwood, S. N. Atkinson, E.Peacock, D. P. Costa, M. A. Owen, T. M. Williams. (2018) High-energy, high-fat lifestyle challenges an Arctic apex predator, the polar bear. Science, 359(6375), pp.568-572. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6375/568

Thomas G. Smith & Christian Lydersen (1991) Availability of suitable land-fast ice and predation as factors limiting ringed seal populations, Phocahispida, in Svalbard, Polar Research, 10(2), pp.585-594. https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v10i2.6769

Stokstad, E. (2010) How to Save Polar Bears. [Online] American Association for the Advancement of Science. Available at: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/12/how-save-polar-bears (Accessed on 6 March 2020).

Laidre, K. L., Atkinson, S., Regehr, E. V., Stern, H. L., Born, E. W., Wiig, Ø., Lunn, N. J., and Dyck, M.. 2020. Interrelated ecological impacts of climate change on an apex predator. Ecological Applications 00( 00):e02071. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2071

Staalesen, A. (2019) There is no ice left on Northern Sea Route. [Online] The Barents Observer.Available at:https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2019/08/there-no-ice-left-russias-northern-sea-route (Accessed on 6 March 2020).

Bannon, E. (2018) Fears for Arctic ecosystem as shipping milestone reached. [Online] Transport & Environment. Available at:https://www.transportenvironment.org/news/fears-arctic-ecosystem-shipping-milestone-reached (Accessed on 6 March 2020).

Cho, R. (2016) The Damaging Effects of Black Carbon. [Online] Columbia University. Available at: https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2016/03/22/the-damaging-effects-of-black-carbon/ (Accessed on 6 March 2020).

Leahy, S. (2018) Polar Bears Really Are Starving Because of Global Warming, Study Shows. [Online] National Geographic. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/02/polar-bears-starve-melting-sea-ice-global-warming-study-beaufort-sea-environment/ (Accessed on 6 March 2020).

Williams, M. (2015) Polar bear population decline a wake up call for climate change action. [Online] World Wildlife Fund. Available at: https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/polar-bear-population-decline-a-wake-up-call-for-climate-change-action (Accessed on 6 March 2020)

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.

Written by Megan Ray Nichols is a technical writer and blogger who covers industrial and scientific topics. She has three years experience covering these industries writing for sites like Thomas, IoT Times, IndustryWeek and Discover Magazine. Megan also writes easy to understand science articles on her blog, Schooled By Science , to encourage others to take an interest in these subjects. Outside of work, Megan enjoys exploring local nature trails, stargazing, and curling up with a good book.
TWO RECENT ARCTIC SHIPPING IMPACT STUDIES

Global top 20 owners of container-carrying world fleet, 2018 . ... Number of operators and maximum ship size in selected small island ... This edition of the Review covers data and events from January 2017 until June ... monitoring and analysis of the effects of coop- ... more crude oil from the Atlantic basin (countries such as.
The ice-covered central Arctic Ocean generally exhibits relatively low productivity. ... 1.4 Climate change impacts on the Arctic marine ecosystem ... Three principal Arctic shipping routes connect the Atlantic and Pacific: the ... This analysis uses vessel traffic data from the Norwegian Coastal Administration satellite Automatic.

FROM SCIENCE TO POLICY IN THE EASTERN CANADIAN ARCTIC
An Integrated Regional Impact Study (IRIS) of climate change and modernization

Chief Editors: Trevor Bell and Tanya Brown

Table of Contents
Foreword 5
Preface 6
Introduction 8

SYNTHESIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Recent and future climate trends 10
Key findings and recommendations 12
Knowledge gaps 22

PART I REGIONAL SETTING
CHAPTER 1 Regional geography 27

PART II UNDERSTANDING CHANGE:
DRIVERS, TRENDS, UNCERTAINTIES
CHAPTER 2 Climate variability 55
CHAPTER 3 Glaciers and ice shelves 95
CHAPTER 4 Permafrost 119
CHAPTER 5 Marine productivity 141
CHAPTER 6 Freshwater systems 161
CHAPTER 7 Terrestrial ecosystem 189
CHAPTER 8 Coastal dynamics 211
CHAPTER 9 Education 251

PART III RESPONDING TO CHANGE:
EFFECTS, OUTLOOK, ADAPTATION
CHAPTER 10 Contaminants 271
CHAPTER 11 Travel and hunting 305
CHAPTER 12 Human health 323
CHAPTER 13 Food security 343
CHAPTER 14 Water security 369
CHAPTER 15 Permafrost and infrastructure 393
CHAPTER 16 Managed wildlife species 417
CHAPTER 17 Marine biodiversity 459
CHAPTER 18 Commercial fisheries 475
CHAPTER 19 Mining and communities 495
CHAPTER 20 Shipping 509
CHAPTER 21 Cruise tourism 523
CHAPTER 22 High school education 539
CHAPTER 23 Postsecondary education 549

Special permissions 560
http://www.arcticnet.ulaval.ca/pdf/media/29170_IRIS_East_full%20report_web.pdf

Citation
Bell, T. and Brown, T.M. 2018. From Science to Policy in the Eastern Canadian Arctic: An Integrated Regional
Impact Study (IRIS) of Climate Change and Moderization. 
The editors encourage citation of individual chapters by including the following:
Coordinating authors and contributors. 2018. Chapter # and title. In Bell, T. and Brown, T.M (Eds),
From Science to Policy in the Eastern Canadian Artic: An Integrated Regional Impact Study (IRIS) of Climate Change and Modernization. 
ArcticNet, Quebec City, 560 pp.
The report can be downloaded for free at www.arcticnet.ulaval.ca



from both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This fact makes the ... utilization, shipping, ice cover and ocean temperature and salinity ... world-leading Arctic climate change research done in the Churchill and ... (NRC) and the UK's Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult ... increasingly surfacing across Canada, their impacts on.

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

GEOENGINEERING 
Exhaust from container ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean triggers cloud formation and blocks solar energy from reaching the ocean, masking the effects of global warming

Researchers analyzed satellite data from a popular shipping route in the Atlantic

They found greater cloud cover and more reflected energy from the sun

This was caused by clouds that formed around tiny sulfate particles contained in emissions from container ships and other commercial vessels

By MICHAEL THOMSEN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 25 March 2020


Researchers from the University of Washington have found that emissions from container ships and other commercial vessels form dense clouds that reflect solar radiation and significantly mask the effects of global warming.

Exhaust from commercial ships contain small sulfate particles, which the researchers describe as 'seeds,' that attract water vapor and then turn into cloud droplets.

Because of their small size, these sulfate particles lead to clouds that are more densely packed with droplets and have greater surface area that reflects solar radiation before it reaches the ocean.


Scientists from the University of Washington analyzed satellite data from over the Atlantic Ocean and found exhaust from commercial container ships was causing clouds to form in greater density than normal

The team estimated that these emission-based clouds may have had a masking effect on global warming by decreasing the amount of solar radiation that ends up trapped in the atmosphere by other greenhouse gases.


These denser clouds blocked an average of two watts of solar energy for every 11 square feet (one square meter) of open ocean.

Without these clouds, average global temperatures since the late 1800s could have risen 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit instead of the 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit rise currently documented.

'In climate models, if you simulate the world with sulfur emissions from shipping, and you simulate the world without these emissions, there is a sizable cooling effect from changes in the model clouds due to shipping,' University of Washington's Michael Diamond told the school's news blog.

'But because there’s so much natural variability it’s been hard to see this effect in observations of the real world.'

To measure the effect, the team looked at data from two different sets of satellites, one which analyzed the composition of the air using spectroradiometers and another which measured the amount of sunlight reflected from the atmosphere.

The data was taken from over one of the most heavily trafficked shipping routes in the Atlantic Ocean between 2003 and 2015.


Exhaust from commercial ships contain tiny sulfate particles, which attracts water vapor and causes small cloud droplets to form. The droplets formed around these particles are smaller than normal droplets and have greater surface area used to reflect solar energy


The team found the clouds consistently formed in one of the busiest commercial shipping paths in the Atlantic Ocean

Some have suggested trying to make more chemically-based clouds to reflect sunlight in the hopes of mitigating global warming, potentially using small salt particles as 'seeds.'

According to Diamond, there's still not clear enough evidence to say that would be a good idea.

'What this study doesn’t tell us at all is: Is marine cloud brightening a good idea? Should we do it?' Diamond said.

'There’s a lot more research that needs to go into that, including from the social sciences and humanities,'

'It does tell us that these effects are possible—and on a more cautionary note, that these effects might be difficult to confidently detect.'

Ships' emissions create measurable regional change in clouds
New research led by the University of Washington is the first to measure this phenomenon's effect over years and at a regional scale. Satellite data over a  in the south Atlantic show that the ships modify clouds to block an additional 2 Watts of solar energy, on average, from reaching each square meter of ocean surface near the shipping lane.
The result implies that globally, cloud changes caused by particles from all forms of industrial pollution block 1 Watt of solar energy per square meter of Earth's surface, masking almost a third of the present-day warming from greenhouse gases. The open-access study was published March 24 in AGU Advances, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
"In , if you simulate the world with  from shipping, and you simulate the world without these emissions, there is a pretty sizable cooling effect from changes in the model clouds due to shipping," said first author Michael Diamond, a UW doctoral student in atmospheric sciences. "But because there's so much natural variability it's been hard to see this effect in observations of the real world."
The new study uses observations from 2003 to 2015 in spring, the cloudiest season, over the shipping route between Europe and South Africa. This path is also part of a popular open-ocean shipping route between Europe and Asia.
Small particles in exhaust from burning fossil fuels creates "seeds" on which water vapor in the air can condense into cloud droplets. More particles of airborne sulfate or other material leads to clouds with more small droplets, compared to the same amount of water condensed into fewer, bigger droplets. This makes the clouds brighter, or more reflective.
Past attempts to measure this effect from ships had focused on places where the wind blows across the shipping lane, in order to compare the "clean" area upwind with the "polluted" area downstream. But in this study researchers focused on an area that had previously been excluded: a place where the wind blows along the shipping lane, keeping pollution concentrated in that small area.
The study analyzed cloud properties detected over 12 years by the MODIS instrument on NASA satellites and the amount of reflected sunlight at the top of the atmosphere from the CERES group of satellite instruments. The authors compared cloud properties inside the shipping route with an estimate of what those cloud properties would have been in the absence of shipping based on statistics from nearby, unpolluted areas.
"The difference inside the shipping lane is small enough that we need about six years of data to confirm that it is real," said co-author Hannah Director, a UW doctoral student in statistics. "However, if this small change occurred worldwide, it would be enough to affect global temperatures."
Once they could measure the ship emissions' effect on solar radiation, the researchers used that number to estimate how much cloud brightening from all industrial pollution has affected the climate overall.
Averaged globally, they found changes in low clouds due to pollution from all sources block 1 Watt per square meter of solar energy—compared to the roughly 3 Watts per square meter trapped today by the greenhouse gases also emitted by industrial activities. In other words, without the cooling effect of pollution-seeded clouds, Earth might have already warmed by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F), a change that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects would have significant societal impacts. (For comparison, today the Earth is estimated to have warmed by approximately 1 C (1.8 F) since the late 1800s.)
"I think the biggest contribution of this study is our ability to generalize, to calculate a global assessment of the overall impact of sulfate pollution on low clouds," said co-author Rob Wood, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences.
The results also have implications for one possible mechanism of deliberate climate intervention. They suggest that strategies to temporarily slow global warming by spraying salt particles to make low-level marine  more reflective, known as marine cloud brightening, might be effective. But they also imply these changes could take years to be easily observed.
"What this study doesn't tell us at all is: Is marine cloud brightening a good idea? Should we do it? There's a lot more research that needs to go into that, including from the social sciences and humanities," Diamond said. "It does tell us that these effects are possible—and on a more cautionary note, that these effects might be difficult to confidently detect."Satellite tracking shows how ships affect clouds and climate

More information: Michael S. Diamond et al. Substantial Cloud Brightening From Shipping in Subtropical Low Clouds, AGU Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1029/2019AV0001

Ship Emissions Cause Measurable Regional Impact in CloudsWritten by AZoCleantech Mar 25 2020

A trail of white clouds left by a container ship can remain in the air for hours. This puffy trail is not just the engine’s exhaust, but a change in the clouds caused by tiny floating particles of pollution.

This satellite image was taken on January 16th, 2018, off the coast of Europe. Pollution from ships creates lines of clouds that can stretch hundreds of miles. The narrower ends of the clouds are youngest, while the broader, wavier ends are older. Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory.

A new study headed by the University of Washington is the first to quantify the effect of this phenomenon across years and at a regional scale. Satellite data collected from a shipping lane in the south Atlantic revealed that the ships alter clouds to block an additional 2 W of solar energy, on average, from reaching each square meter of the surface of the ocean close to the shipping lane.

The result suggests that on a global level, cloud changes induced by particles from all kinds of industrial pollution block 1 W of solar energy for each square meter of the surface of Earth, masking nearly a third of today’s warming caused by greenhouse gases. The open-access study was published in AGU Advances, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, on March 24th, 2020.
In climate models, if you simulate the world with sulfur emissions from shipping, and you simulate the world without these emissions, there is a sizable cooling effect from changes in the model clouds due to shipping. But because there’s so much natural variability it’s been hard to see this effect in observations of the real world.
Michael Diamond, Study First Author and Doctoral Student, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington

The new research utilizes observations made between 2003 and 2015 in spring—the cloudiest season—over the shipping route between South Africa and Europe. This route is also a part of a common open-ocean shipping route between Asia and Europe.

Related Stories
Moving Beyond Theoretical Representations of Clouds to Understand Global Warming
Understanding Emissions Trading or Cap and Trade Systems For Emissions Reduction
How China is Tackling Plastic and Emission Pollution

Tiny particles in exhaust, released by burning fossil fuels, create “seeds” on which atmospheric water vapor can condense into cloud droplets. Additional particles of airborne sulfate or other material result in clouds with further small droplets, as opposed to the same quantity of water condensed into fewer, larger droplets. This causes the clouds to appear brighter, or more reflective.

Earlier attempts to quantify this effect from ships had looked only at places where the wind blows through the shipping lane, to make a comparison between the “clean” area upwind and the “polluted” area downstream.

However, in this study, the team targeted an area that had not been included before: a place where the wind blows throughout the shipping lane, keeping pollution levels concentrated in that small area.

The research examined cloud properties that were detected more than 12 years by the MODIS instrument on NASA satellites and the quantity of reflected sunlight at the top of the atmosphere from the CERES group of satellite instruments. Cloud properties within the shipping route were compared with an approximation of what those cloud properties would have been in the absence of shipping based on statistics from adjacent, unpolluted areas.
The difference inside the shipping lane is small enough that we need about six years of data to confirm that it is real. However, if this small change occurred worldwide, it would be enough to affect global temperatures.
Hannah Director, Study Co-Author and Doctoral Student, Department of Statistics, University of Washington

Once the researchers quantified the effect of ship emissions on solar radiation, they used that number to predict how much cloud brightening from all industrial pollution has impacted the climate in general.

Averaged worldwide, the researchers discovered that changes in low clouds caused by pollution from all sources block 1 W/m2 of solar energy—in comparison to about 3 W/m2 trapped presently by the greenhouse gases also produced by industrial activities.

This means, without the cooling effect of pollution-seeded clouds, Earth could have already been warmed by 1.5 °C (2.7 °F)—a variation that would have substantial societal influences according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects. (For comparison, presently, the Earth is estimated to have warmed by about 1 °C, or 1.8 °F, after the late 1800s.)
I think the biggest contribution of this study is our ability to generalize, to calculate a global assessment of the overall impact of sulfate pollution on low clouds.
Rob Wood, Study Co-Author and Professor, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington

These outcomes also hold implications for one probable mechanism of intentional climate intervention. According to the team, strategies to provisionally slow down global warming by spraying salt particles to render low-level marine clouds more reflective, referred to as marine cloud brightening, might be fruitful. But they also indicate that these variations could take years to be easily noticed.

“What this study doesn’t tell us at all is: Is marine cloud brightening a good idea? Should we do it? There’s a lot more research that needs to go into that, including from the social sciences and humanities,” Diamond added. “It does tell us that these effects are possible—and on a more cautionary note, that these effects might be difficult to confidently detect.”

Other co-authors of the study are Ryan Eastman, a UW research scientist in atmospheric sciences, and Anna Possner at Goethe University in Frankfurt. The study received funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation.

Source: https://www.washington.edu

GEOENGINEERING STUDIES

Search Results

Committee on Geoengineering Climate: Technical Evaluation and
Discussion of Impacts; Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate;
Ocean Studies Board; Division on Earth and Life Studies; National
Research Council 
This PDF is available from The National Academies Press at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=18988
ISBN
978-0-309-31482-4
234 pages
8.5 x 11
PAPERBACK (2015)

GEOENGINEERING IN RELATION TO THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY: 
TECHNICAL AND REGULATORY MATTERS
Part I. Impacts of Climate-Related Geoengineering on Biological Diversity
Part II. The Regulatory Framework for Climate-Related Geoengineering Relevant to the Convention on Biological Diversity
https://www.cbd.int/doc/publications/cbd-ts-66-en.pdf

GEOENGINEERING: PARTS I, II, AND III 
BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
             HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
         ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
                     FIRST SESSION
                            AND
                    SECOND SESSION
                    NOVEMBER 5, 2009
                    FEBRUARY 4, 2010
                            and
                    MARCH 18, 2010