Concept for a hybrid-electric plane may reduce aviation's air pollution problem

Proposed design could reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 95 percent, a new study finds

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Research News

 

At cruising altitude, airplanes emit a steady stream of nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, where the chemicals can linger to produce ozone and fine particulates. Nitrogen oxides, or NOx, are a major source of air pollution and have been associated with asthma, respiratory disease, and cardiovascular disorders. Previous research has shown that the generation of these chemicals due to global aviation results in 16,000 premature deaths each year.

Now MIT engineers have come up with a concept for airplane propulsion that they estimate would eliminate 95 percent of aviation's NOx emissions, and thereby reduce the number of associated early deaths by 92 percent.

The concept is inspired by emissions-control systems used in ground transportation vehicles. Many heavy-duty diesel trucks today house postcombustion emissions-control systems to reduce the NOx generated by engines. The researchers now propose a similar design for aviation, with an electric twist.

Today's planes are propelled by jet engines anchored beneath each wing. Each engine houses a gas turbine that powers a propeller to move the plane through the air as exhaust from the turbine flows out the back. Due to this configuration, it has not been possible to use emissions-control devices, as they would interfere with the thrust produced by the engines.

In the new hybrid-electric, or "turbo-electric," design, a plane's source of power would still be a conventional gas turbine, but it would be integrated within the plane's cargo hold. Rather than directly powering propellers or fans, the gas turbine would drive a generator, also in the hold, to produce electricity, which would then electrically power the plane's wing-mounted, electrically driven propellers or fans. The emissions produced by the gas turbine would be fed into an emissions-control system, broadly similar to those in diesel vehicles, which would clean the exhaust before ejecting it into the atmosphere.

"This would still be a tremendous engineering challenge, but there aren't fundamental physics limitations," says Steven Barrett, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. "If you want to get to a net-zero aviation sector, this is a potential way of solving the air pollution part of it, which is significant, and in a way that's technologically quite viable."

The details of the design, including analyses of its potential fuel cost and health impacts, are published today in the journal Energy and Environmental Science. The paper's co-authors are Prakash Prashanth, Raymond Speth, Sebastian Eastham, and Jayant Sabnins, all members of MIT's Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment.

A semi-electrified plan

The seeds for the team's hybrid-electric plane grew out of Barrett and his team's work in investigating the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal. In 2015, environmental regulators discovered that the car manufacturer had been intentionally manipulating diesel engines to activate onboard emissions-control systems only during lab testing, such that they appeared to meet NOx emissions standards but in fact emitted up to 40 times more NOx in real-world driving conditions.

As he looked into the health impacts of the emissions cheat, Barrett also became familiar with diesel vehicles' emissions-control systems in general. Around the same time, he was also looking into the possibility of engineering large, all-electric aircraft.

"The research that's been done in the last few years shows you could probably electrify smaller aircraft, but for big aircraft, it won't happen anytime soon without pretty major breakthroughs in battery technology," Barrett says. "So I thought, maybe we can take the electric propulsion part from electric aircraft, and the gas turbines that have been around for a long time and are super reliable and very efficient, and combine that with the emissions-control technology that's used in automotive and ground power, to at least enable semielectrified planes."

Flying with zero impact

Before airplane electrification had been seriously considered, it might have been possible to implement a concept such as this, for example as an add-on to the back of jet engines. But this design, Barrett notes, would "kill any stream of thrust" that a jet engine would produce, effectively grounding the design.

Barrett's concept gets around this limitation by separating the thrust-producing propellers or fans from the power-generating gas turbine. The propellers or fans would instead be directly powered by an electric generator, which in turn would be powered by the gas turbine. The exhaust from the gas turbine would be fed into an emissions-control system, which could be folded up, accordion-style, in the plane's cargo hold -- completely isolated from the thrust-producing propellers.

He envisions the bulk of the hybrid-electric system -- gas turbine, electric generator, and emissions control system -- would fit within the belly of a plane, where there can be ample space in many commercial aircraft .

In their new paper, the researchers calculate that if such a hybrid-electric system were implemented on a Boeing 737 or Airbus A320-like aircraft, the extra weight would require about 0.6 percent more fuel to fly the plane.

"This would be many, many times more feasible than what has been proposed for all-electric aircraft," Barrett says. "This design would add some hundreds of kilograms to a plane, as opposed to adding many tons of batteries, which would be over a magnitude of extra weight."

The researchers also calculated the emissions that would be produced by a large aircraft, with and without an emissions control system, and found that the hybrid-electric design would eliminate 95 percent of NOx emissions

If this system were rolled out across all aircraft around the world, they further estimate that 92 percent of pollution-related deaths due to aviation would be avoided. They arrived at this estimate by using a global model to map the flow of aviation emissions through the atmosphere, and calculated how much various populations around the world would be exposed to these emissions. They then converted these exposures to mortalities, or estimates of the number of people who would die as a result of exposure to aviation emissions.

The team is now working on designs for a "zero-impact" airplane that flies without emitting NOx and other chemicals like climate-altering carbon dioxide.

"We need to get to essentially zero net-climate impacts and zero deaths from air pollution," Barrett says. "This current design would effectively eliminate aviation's air pollution problem. We're now working on the climate impact part of it."

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Written by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office

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SolarEV City concept: Building the next urban power and mobility systems

Unlocking the potentials of EV batteries with roof-top PVs for urban decarbonization

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Research News

 

Cities have become the focus of global climate mitigation efforts because as they are responsible for 60-70% of energy-related CO2 emissions. As the world is increasingly urbanized, it is crucial to identify cost-effective pathways to decarbonize and enhance the resilience of cities, which ensure the well-being of their dwellers. In this study, we propose a "SolarEV City" concept, in which integrated systems of cities' roof-top photovoltaics and electric vehicles (EVs) supply affordable and dispatchable CO2-free electricity to urban dwellers.

The SolarEV City assumes that 70% of toof-top of cities at maximum are used for PV and all passenger vehciles are converted to EV in cities being used as batteries for PV electricity. We conducted technoeconomic analyses to evaluate the concept in terms of CO2 emission reduction, cost savings, energy suffciency, self-sufficiency, self-consumption for nine Japanese urban areas (Kyoto City, Hiroshima City, Korimaya City, Okayama City, Sapporo City, Sendai City, Niigata City, Kawasaki City, Special districits of Tokyo).

Our analyses indicate that implementations of the concept can meet 53-95 % of electricity demands in nine major Japanese urban areas by 2030 with the use of 70% of roof-top area in the cities. CO2 emission from vehicle use and electricity generation in these areas can be reduced by 54-95% with potential cost savings of 26-41%. High cost-effectiveness and seasonally stable insolation in low latitudes may imply that the concept may be more effective to decarbonize urban environments in emerging economies in low latitudes.

Among several factors, governmental interventions will play a crucial role in realizing such systems, particularly in legislating regulations that enhance penetration of the integrated system of PV and EV and enable formation of decentralized power systems. As bottom-up processes are critical, policy makers, communities, industries, and researchers should work together to build such systems ov

Resilience to climate change?

New study finds octopuses adapting to higher ocean acid levels

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS JOURNALS

Research News

 

IMAGE: THIS EAST PACIFIC RUBY OCTOPUS, OCTOPUS RUBESCENS, WAS PHOTOGRAPHED BY KIRT L. ONTHANK NEAR WHIDBEY ISLAND, WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES. view more 

CREDIT: KIRT L. ONTHANK

With the impact of climate change increasing by the day, scientists are studying the ways in which human behavior contributes to the damage. A recent study at Walla Walla University, by a collaboration of researchers from Walla Walla University and La Sierra University, examined the effects of acidic water on octopuses, potentially bringing new insight into both how our activities impact the world around us, and the way that world is adapting in response.

The study, "Impact of Short- and Long-Term Exposure to Elevated Seawater PCO2 on Metabolic Rate and Hypoxia Tolerance in Octopus rubescens," focused on the metabolic rate of octopuses exposed to water acidified by carbon dioxide, and the changes it made to the animals. CO2 is a key indicator of the growing acidity of our oceans because much of the gas released into the air by humans is dissolving into the seawater.

Initial work in the field focused on the negative effects of ocean acidity: the impaired growth of affected species such as hermit crabs, for example, or reduced survival rates of certain types of fish over time. Adaptability, however, has not received as much attention, particularly when it comes to octopuses and other cephalopods. What studies have been conducted showed conflicting results, particularly when it comes to short-term vs. long-term exposure to increased ocean acidity (OA).

For instance, studies on cuttlefish show no significant change in their metabolism after exposure to increased OA, while squid subjected to the same conditions showed a reduction in aerobic metabolism, indicating reduced oxygen circulation in the subjects.

For purposes of this experiment, researchers used octopus rubescens a small and easily maintained species of octopus common to the west coast of North America. The subjects were exposed to increased CO2-created acidity for a period of 5 weeks. Researchers measured their routine metabolic rate (RMR) with no prior acclimation to the acidic water, and then again at 1 week and at 5 weeks. The subjects' critical oxygen pressure was measured at 5 weeks as well.

Metabolic rates are very telling in such circumstances because most significant physiological changes - such as smaller organs or reduced growth - are reflected in the shift in metabolism. (Changes in physiology are essentially changes in energy use, which can be observed by monitoring metabolism.)

The results demonstrated a surprising amount of adaptability in the subjects, as well as possible causes for data variation in other experiments. The subjects experienced high levels of metabolic change within the first 24 hours of exposure to increased acidity: a departure from earlier studies on different cephalopods, which showed a decrease in metabolic change.

However, when the same subjects were evaluated after one week, their RMR had returned to normal. The normal readings remained after 5 weeks as well, though their ability to function in low oxygen levels suffered in response to the increased acidity.

The results suggest that octopuses may be better able to withstand changes in ocean-acidity levels, which may have long-term bearings on our understanding of climate change. It also marks the first study to compare long-term and short-term effects of increased acid exposure. Further research is needed to clarify the mechanism driving the change in RMR, but the experimental parameters - and the use of octopus rubescens as test subjects - provide an excellent model system for studying the effects of OA on cephalopods.

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Future too warm for baby sharks

ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR CORAL REEF STUDIES

Research News

 

IMAGE: IN WARMER WATERS, SHARK EMBRYOS GREW FASTER AND USED THEIR YOLK SAC QUICKER, WHICH IS THEIR ONLY SOURCE OF FOOD AS THEY DEVELOP IN THE EGG CASE. THIS LED TO... view more 

CREDIT: M. JOHNSON

New research has found as climate change causes the world's oceans to warm, baby sharks are born smaller, exhausted, undernourished and into environments that are already difficult for them to survive in.

Lead author of the study Carolyn Wheeler is a PhD candidate at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University (Coral CoE at JCU) and the University of Massachusetts. She examined the effects of increased temperatures on the growth, development and physiological performance of epaulette sharks--an egg-laying species found only on the Great Barrier Reef. She and her team studied the sharks as embryos and as hatchlings.

"We tested shark embryos in waters up to 31°C," Ms Wheeler said.

"The hotter the conditions, the faster everything happened, which could be a problem for the sharks. The embryos grew faster and used their yolk sac quicker, which is their only source of food as they develop in the egg case. This led to them hatching earlier than usual."

This meant hatchlings were not only smaller, they needed to feed almost straight away--while lacking significant energy.

Co-author Associate Professor Jodie Rummer, also from Coral CoE at JCU, says the waters of the Great Barrier Reef will likely experience summer averages close to or even in excess of 31°C by the end of the century.

Since sharks don't care for their eggs after they are laid, a shark egg must be able to survive unprotected for up to four months. Dr Rummer flags rising ocean temperatures as a major concern for the future of all sharks--both egg-laying and live-bearing species.

"The epaulette shark is known for its resilience to change, even to ocean acidification," Dr Rummer said. "So, if this species can't cope with warming waters then how will other, less tolerant species fare?" she said.

Sharks and the class of animals they belong to, which includes rays and skates, are slow growing. They also don't reproduce that often compared to other fishes. The populations of these creatures are already threatened across the globe.

The study suggests the sharks of the future will be born--or hatch, in this case--not only at a disadvantage but into environments that are already at the warmest they can tolerate.

"The study presents a worrying future given that sharks are already threatened," Ms Wheeler said.

"Sharks are important predators that keep ocean ecosystems healthy. Without predators, whole ecosystems can collapse, which is why we need to keep studying and protecting these creatures."

"Our future ecosystems depend us taking urgent action to limit climate change," Dr Rummer said.

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The research was a collaborative effort between the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life and the husbandry staff at the New England Aquarium in Boston. The New England Aquarium has a successful breeding program for epaulette sharks.

PAPER

Wheeler C, Rummer J, Bailey B, Lockwood J, Vance S, Mandelman J. (2020). 'Future thermal regimes for epaulette sharks (Hemiscyllium ocellatum): growth and metabolic performance cease to be optimal'. Scientific Reports, 10: 79953. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-79953-0

Human-induced climate change caused the northwestern Pacific warming record in August 2020

A once-in-1000-year warming event has been already altered to occur once per 15 years because of past human activities

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Research News

 

IMAGE: OBSERVED SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES IN AUGUST OVER THE NORTHWESTERN PACIFIC OCEAN. THE WHITE BOXES ARE THE REGION FOCUSED ON IN THIS NEW STUDY. THE COBE SST2 DATASET FROM JMA-MRI IS... view more 

CREDIT: NIES

August 2020 set new record high sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and around the Japan coasts. A new study led by National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) researchers revealed that this warming record could not happen without human-induced climate changes.

The northwestern Pacific sea surface becomes warm seasonally around August every year. However, it was unprecedentedly high in August 2020, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The extremely high SSTs exceeding 30°C, which lasted until mid-September, may have intensified tropical cyclones such as Typhoon Haisheng, causing severe damages to the East Asian countries. Although human-induced greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide have gradually warmed the northwestern Pacific Ocean since the mid-20th century, it remains unclear yet how much past human activities may increase the occurrence likelihood of such regional record-warm SSTs.

"Understanding the tropical warm water expansion in the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic Oceans is essential for projecting changes in the characteristics of tropical cyclones and other weather events in the future," said Hideo Shiogama, a co-author and the head of Climate Risk Assessment Section at the Center for Global Environmental Research, NIES. "A quantitative evaluation of what drives regional extreme temperatures happening recently is necessary to take appropriate measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the impacts of global warming."

CAPTION

Time series of the northwestern Pacific sea surface temperature in August. Showings are the observational datasets and the simulation results from the climate model (CMIP6) ensemble: the global warming signal (solid black line) and the ranges of 'once-in-20-year' events (95% probability range) in the historical and future experiments (gray shading) and pre-industrial experiments (dashed lines).

The paper published in Geophysical Research Letters illustrates the quantitative impact of greenhouse gases emitted by human activities on the unprecedentedly high SSTs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean in August 2020. By analyzing multiple observational datasets from 1901 to 2020 and a large number of experimental outputs from the state-of-the-art numerical climate models, a climate research group at NIES statistically estimated changes in the occurrence probability of the northwestern Pacific Ocean (120°E-180° and 20°N-35°N) condition exceeding the record-warm SST in August 2020 from the past to future. The scientists revealed that its probability in the present climate was increased from once-in-1000 years to once-in-15 years because of human-induced climate changes.

Detecting human-induced climate changes

"The numerical climate model ensembles are powerful tools to quantitatively distinguish between natural variability of the Earth system and climate changes caused by human activities," said corresponding lead author Michiya Hayashi, a research associate at NIES. The ensemble of 31 climate models participating in the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) consists of a series of historical experiments and future scenario experiments forced by greenhouse gas- and aerosol emissions from human activities and natural volcanic and solar variations from 1850 to 2100. "We can compare the historical and future experiments with a sub-ensemble of the CMIP6 climate models forced only by the natural volcanic and solar activities to estimate to what extent human-caused climate changes have altered the northwestern Pacific Ocean condition until today."

"The northwestern Pacific warming has proceeded clearly since the 1980s," stated Shiogama. "The warming speed has been accelerated in the last four decades as the reduced aerosol emissions do not cancel the warming signal forced by increasing greenhouse gas concentration anymore." The results show that the CMIP6 ensemble well reproduces the observed long-term change in the northwestern Pacific August SST within the range of 'once-in-20-year' events in the historical simulations. "The SSTs that exceed the pre-industrial range are rarely observed during the 20th century but have occurred frequently since 2010, indicating that human influences on the northwestern Pacific Ocean are already detectable in observations," noted a co-author Seita Emori, deputy director of the Center for Global Environmental Research at NIES.

CAPTION

Probability distributions for the northwestern Pacific sea surface temperature in August. For 1901-2000, the climate model (CMIP6) ensemble (solid black line) reproduces the observational values (gray shading). For 2001-2020, the observed values (red triangles) are well covered by the CMIP6 ensemble (solid red line) but not by the sub-ensemble forced by natural variations only (thin blue line). For 2031-2050, the most likely level of the projected probability (solid yellow line) exceeds the 2020 level (dashed red line)

This new study estimates that the occurrence frequency of high northwestern Pacific SSTs exceeding the August 2020 level has been increased from once-in-600 years in the 20th century (1901-2000) to once-in-15 years in the present climate (2001-2020) using the CMIP6 ensemble. On the other hand, in the sub-ensemble forced only by natural volcanic and solar activities, the frequency for 2001-2020 is estimated to be once-in-1000 years or less. "The record high level of the northwestern Pacific SST in August could have occurred approximately once per 15 years in 2001-2020, as observed, but it never likely occurred without human-induced greenhouse gases or in the 20th century," said Hayashi.

Importantly, the scientists also imply from the future scenario experiments that the 2020 record high SST is becoming a new normal climate condition in August at the northwestern Pacific region by 2031-2050 when the globally averaged air temperature relative to pre-industrial levels would exceed 1.5°C. In this case, the tropical warm sea surface water, exceeding 28°C, may reach Japan, the Korean Peninsula, the west coast of India, the east coast of the U.S. mainland, and the west of the Hawaiian Islands. "We might need to prepare for living with such warm ocean conditions even if we humans could achieve the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement," said Hayashi.

"The human-induced ocean warming may have impacted tropical cyclones, heavy rainfall, and marine life from the past to present and will continue in the future unless tremendous mitigation measures would be implemented," added Emori. "It is time to take prompt actions to transform our society for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and for adapting to a changing climate."

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Humanity Is Hurtling Into a 'Ghastly Future' It Doesn't Comprehend, Scientists Warn

The emergency is not invisible. But that doesn't mean we can see it.

© Xinzheng/Getty Images

After decades of inaction and ineffective action on biodiversity decline, climate change, and pollution, civilisation stands on the precipice of a "ghastly future" it has gravely underestimated, an international team of scientific experts warns in an unnerving new study published this week.

"The scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeforms – including humanity – is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts," the researchers, led by global ecologist Corey Bradshaw from Flinders University in Australia, explain in their paper.

"The mainstream is having difficulty grasping the magnitude of this loss, despite the steady erosion of the fabric of human civilisation."

If the grandiose language seems almost hyperbolic, that's only because of the incredibly high stakes of what we're actually talking about here.

While the authors know fully well that their assessments will be denied, attacked, and ridiculed in many quarters, the knowledge doesn't obviate them – or the scientific community they represent – of the responsibility for sharing the news.

"Our message might not be popular, and indeed is frightening," the researchers write in a companion piece on The Conversation.

"But scientists must be candid and accurate if humanity is to understand the enormity of the challenges we face."

According to the team's research – a review of over 150 studies on different aspects of the worsening state of the natural world – the central problems we face are economic and political systems centred around unsustainable human consumption and population growth at the expense of all else.

The roots of biodiversity loss can be traced back some 11,000 years to the start of agriculture, but the problem has vastly accelerated in recent centuries due to ever-worsening pressures placed on natural ecosystems, to the extent that the reality of a sixth major extinction is now scientifically undeniable, the researchers write.

At the same time, the global human population keeps growing, having doubled since 1970, with estimates suggesting a peak population of nearly 10 billion by the end of the century.

In turn, this ever-expanding human footprint is expected to accelerate and worsen existing food insecurity, soil degradation, biodiversity decline, pollution, social inequality, and regional conflicts.

"This massive ecological overshoot is largely enabled by the increasing use of fossil fuels," the researchers write.

"These convenient fuels have allowed us to decouple human demand from biological regeneration: 85 percent of commercial energy, 65 percent of fibres, and most plastics are now produced from fossil fuels."

Despite all of this being considered established scientific knowledge, human life for the main part largely goes on as if it weren't, the researchers say.

"Stopping biodiversity loss is nowhere close to the top of any country's priorities, trailing far behind other concerns such as employment, healthcare, economic growth, or currency stability," the authors write.

"Humanity is running an ecological Ponzi scheme in which society robs nature and future generations to pay for boosting incomes in the short term. Even the World Economic Forum, which is captive of dangerous greenwashing propaganda, now recognises biodiversity loss as one of the top threats to the global economy."

Even climate change, which is a much more visible threat than biodiversity loss, appears to be too difficult for human societies to contend with, with ever-rising greenhouse gas concentrations, and continued failures by nations to effectively reduce their emissions or set effective climate targets.

Against the grim backdrop of such existential threats, electorates are increasingly embracing right-wing populist leaders with anti-environment agendas that only intensify the existing pressures, while perpetuating false paradigms that peg the 'environment' against the 'economy'.

In the long term, the authors say we are looking at a "ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health, and climate-disruption upheavals (including looming massive migrations) and resource conflicts", if we are unable to change the course of human society in a direction that prevent extinctions and restore ecosystems.

Despite the seeming fatalism of this alarming assessment, the researchers insist theirs is not a call to surrender, but rather a 'cold shower' humanity and its leaders seem to desperately need – a brutal reality check to snap people out of their sleepy, dangerous inertia.

"While there have been more recent calls for the scientific community in particular to be more vocal about their warnings to humanity, these have been insufficiently foreboding to match the scale of the crisis," the scientists conclude.

"It is therefore incumbent on experts in any discipline that deals with the future of the biosphere and human well-being to eschew reticence, avoid sugar-coating the overwhelming challenges ahead and 'tell it like it is'. Anything else is misleading at best, or negligent and potentially lethal for the human enterprise at worst."

The findings are reported in Frontiers in Conservation Science.

‘Groggy climate giant’ slowly awakening from under Arctic Ocean

Frozen for thousands of years in Arctic permafrost, billions of tons of carbon and methane are slowly being released into the atmosphere due to rising temperatures. A new study shows that while the release is slow, continued thawing of this permafrost will significantly impact Earth's climate.

Over the past two centuries, human activities have released around 1.8 trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the environment. As a direct result of this, global temperatures have risen by about 1°C since the 1800s. Based on only the most optimistic of projections, that warming is expected to reach at least 2°C by the end of this century.

While the world's nations continue to burn fossil fuels, there is a slumbering 'climate giant' in the Arctic. Permafrost—soil that remains frozen all year long—contains immense reservoirs of buried organic matter, as well as pockets of methane trapped in ice (methane hydrates). As these regions thaw, that trapped methane more easily reaches the surface. Meanwhile, microbes become active in the warmer soil and begin breaking down that organic matter, producing carbon dioxide and methane in the process. As these greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere, warming becomes even worse. This is known as a climate feedback loop.

© Provided by The Weather Network 

This diagram shows an artist's impression of subsea and coastal permafrost, with its abundant carbon and methane deposits.

 Credit: Victor Oleg Leshyk, Northern Arizona University

Knowing exactly how big this carbon reservoir is and how quickly these processes can occur is very important. Scientists need this information to make accurate predictions of how Earth's climate will change in the years to come.

With novel research, an international team of scientists focused their attention on subsea permafrost.

"Subsea permafrost is really unique because it is still responding to a dramatic climate transition from more than ten thousand years ago," Sara Sayedi, the Brigham Young University PhD student who co-led the study, said in a university press release. "In some ways, it can give us a peek into the possible response of permafrost that is thawing today because of human activity."

During the last glacial period, tens of thousands of years ago, much of North America, Europe, and Asia were covered in ice several kilometres thick. With all of that frozen water locked up on land, Earth's oceans were much smaller and more shallow than they are today. In the north, this meant that exposed shores of that shallower ocean became permafrost.

© Provided by The Weather Network

The extent of subsea permafrost during the last glacial maximum (left, dark blue) and current extent (left, light blue), plus the processes of permafrost formation during the LGM, and its submersion over the past 14,000 years. Credit: Sayedi, et al./IOP

As Earth warmed and those glaciers retreated, rising sea levels submerged that permafrost under the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean. Over those tens of thousands of years, the ocean water, which is only a few degrees above freezing, has been very slowly thawing the subsea permafrost along the northern continental shelves.

During the course of their research, Sayedi and her team combined numerous sources — a method known as 'expert assessment' — to estimate how much buried carbon and methane are likely trapped in these subsea layers. They also produced an estimate for how much is already being released into the atmosphere from this source.

Based on their study, the carbon stored in these regions of subsea permafrost represents the equivalent of over 2 trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide (plus 60 billion metric tons of methane). That is more carbon than has been emitted by all human activity since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

© Provided by The Weather Network

The coastline of the Bykovsky Peninsula in the central Laptev Sea, Siberia retreats during summer, when ice-rich blocks of permafrost fall to the beach and are eroded by waves.

Credit: P. Overduin/IOP

Fortunately, there is some small amount of good news from this study. Their results indicate that Arctic methane and carbon deposits might not be the 'hair-trigger bomb' that we fear they are.

As of 2019, the amount of excess carbon dioxide released each year reached around 40 billion metric tons. The annual release of methane was a little over 600 million metric tons per year. By comparison, the thaw of subsea permafrost only releases around 140 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and 5.3 million metric tons of methane per year. So, while the total amount of carbon stored in subsea permafrost is substantial, the current rate of release is slow.

"These results are important because they indicate substantial but slow climate feedback," Sayedi said. "Some coverage of this region has suggested that human emissions could trigger catastrophic release of methane hydrates, but our study suggests a gradual increase over many decades."

Watch below: Thawing permafrost splits trees, causes massive 'slum
Melting permafrost splits trees, threatens highways in northern Canada


This is not to say that the rate of thaw will always remain slow. The rate the researchers computed is based on the natural warming these permafrost regions have experienced over the past 14,000 years. As the climate continues to warm due to human activities, this rate will undoubtedly increase. By how much remains to be seen (and much more study is needed in this area).

Based on their expert assessment, however, Sayedi and her team believe that the large-scale release of carbon and methane from subsea permafrost is something that would happen over the next few centuries, rather than all at once.

Edmonton union, Alberta labour association criticize Cessco's use of COVID-19 relief funding 

TO HIRE SCABS

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Employees walk the picket line outside the CESSCO manufacturing plant Sept. 8, 2020 after being locked out by the company.

An Edmonton-based company’s use of COVID-19 relief funding in the midst of a lockout is being criticized by local unionized boilermakers and Alberta’s labour association.

Workers at Cessco Fabrication and Engineering Ltd. have been unable to work since June after negotiations with the company fell through earlier last year. The two sides have been trying to reach an agreement on a new contract for more than two years.

It was later discovered Cessco was receiving aid through the federal government’s Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS). The company is registered on the CEWS website, however, the site does not provide any additional details such as when Cessco started receiving the money.

Cessco president Dave Hummel, who previously described the labour dispute as a lockout/strike , said he would not be able to provide a statement before press time when asked by Postmedia on Wednesday.

Hugh MacDonald, business manager of the Boilermakers Lodge 146, said he learned about Cessco receiving relief funding while reading the newspaper on Dec. 20. He said the funding was not intended to be used by a company during a labour dispute.

“I think taxpayers in Canada deserve better,” MacDonald said. “I think they will be astonished to learn that a small portion of this money in this good program is being used in this way. We were quite willing to roll over the contract but Mr. Hummel has indicated that he is not interested in that. Mr. Hummel … is certainly willing to accept federal COVID relief money through the wage subsidy program to subsidize this union-busting campaign.”

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said the lockout is the only one happening in the province at the moment and echoed MacDonald’s sentiments that using relief funding to hire non-union workers was inappropriate.

“They’re using this money to hire replacement workers at the expense of the company’s long-time employees who have been locked out now for months,” he said. “It’s important to keep in mind the workers who’ve been locked out are long-time employees. Some of them have been with the company for more than 40 years.”

McGowan said he’s sent a letter to federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to look at closing what he describes as a loophole.

Edmonton Strathcona NDP MP Heather McPherson in a Wednesday news release said the federal government needs to change the funding rules to protect workers.

“We pushed the federal Liberals hard to create this 75 per cent wage subsidy to support workers and help businesses survive the pandemic,” she said in the release. “But giving Cessco federal COVID relief funds so they can continue to lock out their workers is not acceptable.”

Meanwhile, the situation at the picket line hasn’t always been peaceful.

Edmonton city police confirmed that a 36-year-old man was charged with causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon back in October at the plant along 99 Street.

MacDonald said the man charged was a union organizer. He said the matter is still before the courts but felt besides that incident, the situation has been relatively peaceful.

Alberta musician Corb Lund comes out against proposed coal mines in Rocky Mountains

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — Corb Lund, perhaps Canada's pre-eminent singer about rural life and cowboy culture, is warning Albertans.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"I've seen this coming for a while," he said from his home in Lethbridge, Alta., the day after posting a Facebook video lambasting the province's plans to open a vast stretch of its Rocky Mountains to open-pit coal mining. 

"I wrote this song about 15 years ago. It's called "This Is My Prairie."

In it, a rancher laments the industrialization and destruction of the landscape — exactly what Lund fears may happen to his beloved Alberta foothills as coal companies snap up thousands of hectares of previously unmined mountaintops and valleys.

"The scope of this thing — it's huge," Lund said in an interview. "I'm from the foothills and it threatens the hell out of our water. And the mountains. It's a big one."

Lund has released 11 albums documenting the life and culture of those who ride horses to work, labour outdoors, and know what it means when the truck gets stuck in spring gumbo. He regularly tours Canada and around the world and is just as popular with the boots-and-Wranglers set as he is with urban hipsters.

In his video, Lund talks about the province rescinding coal policy dating from 1976, which made those landscapes off-limits to that kind of development.

 

https://wus-streaming-video-msn-com.akamaized.net/2cccbbe7-c9a0-4e19-91b3-6aee93b0a395/06e30362-7d16-42c9-9ef2-1155df9c_2250.mp4

"There's a lot of bad things about it," he said on Facebook. "It's scary. I'm spooked."

Lund, a sixth-generation southern Albertan, points out the area contains the headwaters for freshwater on which millions depend. Coal mining can release selenium, a highly toxic element that is already poisoning watersheds downstream of coal mines in British Columbia.

Perhaps just as bad is the way the change was made, he said.

"I don't like how it was done, with seemingly no public consultation of potentially affected parties."

That's one of the reasons he made the video — to let people know what was happening.

"Not many people know about it. My friends that irrigate in southern Alberta didn't know about it, and I didn't know about it until December."

Lund said his concerns aren't political.

"I've talked to people in three different political parties about this, federal and provincial. I've talked to ranchers and farmers. I've talked to all sides here."

He's met with Alberta Environment Minister Jason Nixon and Energy Minister Sonya Savage.

"I asked them why this is a good idea. I wasn't satisfied with the answers,'' he said.

"They're basically asking us to trust them but I don't trust anyone on this stuff."

The Alberta government did not immediately comment.

Lund said coal mining is not a divisive issue in his circles. People oppose it.

"I haven't really run into too many people who think it's a good idea to rip up the mountains and poison the water."

"I understand (the government is) trying to help the economy, but this is short-term, silly thinking."

The eastern slopes, where the prairies vault into the spires of the Rocky Mountains, are too close to Alberta's sense of itself to mess with, he said.

"I've travelled a lot. Every time I get off the airplane in Calgary and start driving south, it's a magical feeling for me. It's a pretty damn special place and anyone who visits and hasn't seen it is like, 'Oh my God.'"

Alberta has a long history of taking shots from entertainment figures who disagree with its environmental policies. The list includes Jane Fonda, James Cameron, Neil Young and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Lund doesn't want to be added to that folder.

"I live here," he said. "My family's been here since the 1800s. It's different."

Lund isn't sure what his next step will be, or if there is a next step.

"I don't know," he said. "I've always stayed out of current events because I feel I have a different role to play.

"But this one's such a big deal I just can't stay out of it."

-- By Bob Weber in Edmonton

-- Follow @row1960 on Twitter

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 13, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Alberta decision to open Rockies to coal mining to face court challenges in new year

December 24, 2020·

NOTE THE DATE ONCE AGAIN OUR RIGHT WING UCP GOVT TRIES TO HIDE ITS ECO DESTRUCTION UNDER A BUSHEL, RELEASING INFO XMAS WEEK



EDMONTON — The Alberta government is to face at least two court challenges in the new year over its decision to rescind decades-old protections and open the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to coal mining.

Landowners and the Ermineskin and Whitefish Lake First Nations have filed separate requests for a judicial review of the decision, which they argue was made without legally required consultations.

"It really focuses in on the lack of consultation our clients received," said Richard Harrison, lawyer for several ranchers whose grazing leases overlap with land now available for open-pit, steelmaking coal mines.

"That one act — on the Friday before the May long weekend — to rescind the coal policy really had a detrimental effect."

Harrison said the requests are to come up in court the week of Jan. 18. A judge is to hear an argument from Alberta to have the applications dismissed and who will get intervener status if they go ahead.

Documents filed suggest government lawyers will argue that policies are not the same as legislation and can be changed unilaterally.

Alberta Energy did not respond to a request for responses it has filed with the court.

The eastern slopes comprise some of Alberta's most ecologically valuable land — habitat for threatened species as well as the headwaters of rivers millions of Albertans rely on for water.

In May, the United Conservative government announced it would remove rules for coal development in the region that had been in place since 1976. They set zones allowing no development in the most sensitive land and progressively more activity in proportion to the environmental value of the land.

The classifications were applied in advance of any assessment by the Alberta Energy Regulator.

Under the new policy, only the top designation remains. Mine proposals on all other land now go directly to the regulator.

Although it imposes conditions on development, the Alberta Energy Regulator has never turned a proposal down.

Court documents show the applicants will argue that both Alberta legislation and common practice require the province to consult with anyone affected before making land-use decisions. They point to the Alberta Land Stewardship Act and various land-use plans that have been agreed to over the years.

"There's a common law right to consultation when a government decision is going to affect you," said Harrison.

Legislation stipulates that whenever a land-use plan is changed or amended, appropriate public consultation must be carried out. The change must also be tabled in the legislature.

The applicants argue that a series of coal mines constitute a change in land use.

The Livingstone Landowners Group, which has asked to intervene, says its 2,500 members have worked with the province for years on managing competing uses.

"The province has always led us to believe that land-use planning needs input from local people," said president Bill Trafford. "Then they go, 'That's not convenient anymore.' "

Harrison said an Alberta Energy document shows the government chose to move unilaterally despite warnings from officials.

In that document, entered into the court record, Alberta Energy officials warned minister Sonya Savage that dismissing the coal policy on her own carried risks.

"It will draw criticism from environmental groups and other user groups active within Alberta's eastern slopes, particularly if the decision is made without prior public consultation."

It also warned that land-use plans agreed to over the years would be dramatically affected by removing the protections, leaving what it called "policy gaps."

One proposed coal mine, the Grassy Mountain project near the headwaters of the Oldman River, is before a joint federal-provincial review panel. Several others are waiting.

Earlier this month, the province sold coal leases for about 2,000 hectares on the eastern slopes. Land leased for coal now stretches in an almost unbroken swath for nearly 60 kilometres in Alberta's southwest corner.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 24, 2020.

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Damage seen across Calgary following windstorm with gusts up to 90 km/h

Kaylen Small and Melissa Gilligan GLOBAL NEWS

Note to print subscribers: blizzard prevents delivery Thursday

A wind warning was issued for Calgary on Wednesday morning with gusts up to 90 kilometres an hour expected.

© Global News The aftermath of a windstorm in Calgary on Jan. 13, 2021.

The warning from Environment Canada was issued at around 8:30 a.m. and also included Rocky View County near Cochrane. Those warnings were dropped by 3:30 p.m.

Read more: Freezing rain, wind, snowfall warnings issued after weeks of mild weather in Alberta

"Loose objects may be tossed by the wind and cause injury or damage," Environment Canada said. "Be prepared to adjust your driving with changing road conditions due to high winds."

The Calgary Fire Department said it responded to trees landing on power lines, debris flying onto roadways and siding and roofing material ripped from buildings.

The CFD reminded people to secure things in their yard and call 911 if they see a downed power line and ensure they stay 10 metres away.

"All of these incidents created potentially serious public hazards for citizens," the CFD said. "A majority of the incidents occurred between the hours of 11 a.m. and 3 p.m."

Fire crews responded to a collapsed cinder block at a construction site at the 1000 block of Edmonton Trail, landing on a neighbouring house after 8:30 a.m. No injuries were reported.

Calgary homeowner Joanne Reid called the aftermath a "totally disastrous mess."


"I came home to this big mess, and my husband described hearing a loud crash," she said as her hair blew in the wind.

"The neighbour's garage is flattened. The corner of her house is ripped off. Her gas and electricity had to be cut off because the power lines came down. The corner of our deck is totally smashed."

After noon, people reported to 911 that metal sheeting was coming off of the top floor of a high-rise residential building located at the 200 block of 5 Avenue. Crews removed the metal and stored it inside. No injuries were evident, CFD said.

At the Hangar Flight Museum, the wind punctured an aging structure that houses aircraft, prompting concerns for public safety.

"We have been hit hard here at the museum with the tent hangar," executive director Brian Desjardins said.

"The tear has essentially escalated quite a bit to the point where we have informed all the authorities."

The CFD confirmed it responded to the 4600 block of McCall Way for damage to a large industrial storage tent before 1 p.m.

"Today's wind tore a large section of the roof, putting it at risk of tearing off completely and possibly landing in traffic of the nearby roadway, McKnight Boulevard," the CFD said.

"Firefighters scaled the inside of the structure and safely removed the loose portion of the tent roof without incident. No injuries were reported."

Desjardins added that no planes were damaged.

Amid the windy conditions in Calgary on Wednesday, WinSport announced it would be keeping the ski and snowboard hill at Canada Olympic Park closed for the evening.

The hill was set to be open from 4 - 9 p.m. WinSport said it anticipates the hill will be open for business on Thursday evening.

Video: High winds cause semi truck to tip over in southern Alberta

The wind warning in Calgary was one of many other warnings in place throughout the province on Wednesday, including another in the Lethbridge area, a freezing rain warning in Edmonton and snowfall warnings in the Banff and Jasper regions.

For a complete list of areas in Alberta under a weather alert, click here.


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