Using sunlight to turn two greenhouse gases into valuable chemicals

Team develops chemical process that could accelerate progress to carbon neutrality

Date: September 16, 2024

Source: McGill University

Summary:

Researchers harnessed the power of sunlight to transform two of the most harmful greenhouse gases into valuable chemicals. The discovery could help combat climate change and provide a more sustainable way to produce certain industrial products.


FULL STORY

McGill University researchers have harnessed the power of sunlight to transform two of the most harmful greenhouse gases into valuable chemicals. The discovery could help combat climate change and provide a more sustainable way to produce certain industrial products.

"Imagine a world where the exhaust from your car or emissions from a factory could be transformed, with the help of sunlight, into clean fuel for vehicles, the building blocks for everyday plastics, and energy stored in batteries," said co-first author Hui Su, a Postdoctoral Fellow in McGill's Department of Chemistry.

"That's precisely the kind of transformation this new chemical process enables."

The research team's new light-driven chemical process converts methane and carbon dioxide into green methanol and carbon monoxide in one reaction.

Both products are highly valued in the chemical and energy sectors, the researchers said.

Turning to nature for a sustainable solution

The findings, published in Nature Communications, describe a novel mechanism rooted in nature's own blueprint, similar to how photosynthesis enables plants to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen using sunlight.

In this chemical process, a unique mix of gold, palladium and gallium nitride acts as a catalyst.

When exposed to sunlight, the substance triggers a reaction: an oxygen atom from carbon dioxide attaches to a methane molecule, producing green methanol.

Carbon monoxide is created as a byproduct.

"By tapping into the abundant energy of the sun, we can essentially recycle two greenhouse gases into useful products. The process works at room temperature and doesn't require the high heat or harsh chemicals used in other chemical reactions," said lead author Chao-Jun Li, a Distinguished James McGill Professor in McGill's Department of Chemistry and a Canada Research Chair in Green/Organic Chemistry.

"This innovation offers a promising path towards Canada's target of net-zero emissions by 2050 and turns an environmental challenge into an opportunity for a more sustainable future," said co-first author Jing-Tan Han, a PhD student in McGill's Department of Chemistry.

The study was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chair program, Fonds de Recherche du Québec Nature et technologies, the Canada Foundation for Innovations, McGill University's MSSI fund, Axelys and Catalum Technologies.


Story Source:

Materials provided by McGill University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:Hui Su, Jing-Tan Han, Botong Miao, Mahdi Salehi, Chao-Jun Li. Photosynthesis of CH3OH via oxygen-atom-grafting from CO2 to CH4 enabled by AuPd/GaN. Nature Communications, 2024; 15 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50801-3


Cite This Page:MLA
APA
Chicago
McGill University. "Using sunlight to turn two greenhouse gases into valuable chemicals." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 September 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/09/240916153452.htm>.

Sea surface temperature record in the southwestern Pacific: Coral colony from Fiji reveals warmest temperatures in over 600 years

Date: September 18, 2024

Source: Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz

Summary:

The sea surface temperature in the Fijian archipelago in the southwestern Pacific is now at its maximum for more than 600 years. This finding is the result of an international research team's evaluation of a new coral record providing further evidence for unprecedented warming in the western Pacific Ocean. According to this, the year 2022 was the warmest year in the region since 1370.Share:


FULL STORY



The sea surface temperature in the Fijian archipelago in the southwestern Pacific is now at its maximum for more than 600 years. This is the result of an international research team's evaluation of a new coral record providing further evidence for unprecedented warming in the western Pacific Ocean. According to this, the year 2022 was the warmest year in the region since 1370. The scientists used the giant coral Diploastrea heliopora colony in Fiji to obtain the data for the new reconstruction. These unique and long-lived massive corals record long-term climatic and environmental changes in their chemical composition that have shaped the reef and the giants themselves over many centuries. They are vital archives of past climate variability across the tropics, often providing a direct link to human storylines of past experiences of climate variations.


The team collected a more than 2-meter-long core from this colony, which is growing only 3 to 6 millimeters per year, and analyzed its skeletal chemical composition to draw conclusions on the temperature variations over the course of 627 years. This was supplemented by the results of 26 years of instrumental measurements of water temperatures. The southwestern Pacific region is a major driver of climate variability, modulating for example the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, one of the main phenomena influencing global climate, thus affecting human activities and natural ecosystems worldwide.

Corals -- living temperature sensors

The research team, co-led by Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the University of Leicester in the UK, has thus produced what is to date the longest continuous coral Strontium/Calcium-sea surface temperature reconstruction, offering a distinct and unprecedented perspective on long-term Pacific climate swings from a key location to characterize ocean temperature gradients. Researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) contributed to the study by supporting the annually resolved chronology of the coral record. "We used the uranium-thorium dating method to determine the age of each deposited layer. Thus, we were able to independently check and finally confirm the identification of the counting of individual annual layers. This enabled the precise and absolute dating of the coral," said Professor Denis Scholz, head of the Isotope-geochemical Palaeoclimatology / Speleothem Research group at the JGU Institute of Geosciences.

As they can live for centuries and even thousands of years, corals serve researchers as living temperature sensors -- by recording the chemical composition of the ocean around them in their skeletons, day-in and day-out. The corals act like a living temperature sensor by changing the ratio of skeletal Strontium over Calcium with lower ratios being related to higher temperatures. The study shows that the current sea surface temperature in the Fijian archipelago is highest for the past 653 years, and persistent synchronous western and central Pacific warming rates could adversely impact Pacific Island ecosystems and nations. The work also sheds new light on the interplay between ocean temperature trends across the tropical and subtropical Pacific Oceans over six centuries, revealing how late 20th century warming has become increasingly synchronized between these regions that normally oppose each other, creating important temperature gradients that are the heart of major shifts in rainfall centers across the past few centuries. Taking into account current climate model simulations, researchers expect additional drought and heavy rainfall events in certain areas of the Pacific over the further course of the 21st century. If no counteractions are taken, there will be detrimental impacts for the inhabitants of endangered Pacific islands and their ecosystems.

International collaboration spanning three continents

The study was a collaboration of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, the University of Leicester, the University of New South Wales, Monash University, Université de Bordeaux, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:Juan P. D’Olivo, Jens Zinke, Rishav Goyal, Matthew H. England, Ariaan Purich, Thierry Corrège, Eduardo Zorita, Denis Scholz, Michael Weber, José D. Carriquiry. Coral Sr/Ca-SST reconstruction from Fiji extending to ~1370 CE reveals insights into the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation. Science Advances, 2024; 10 (33) DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ado5107


Cite This Page:MLA
APA
Chicago
Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz. "Sea surface temperature record in the southwestern Pacific: Coral colony from Fiji reveals warmest temperatures in over 600 years." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 September 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/09/240918135751.htm>.

Does intellectual property rights protection help reduce carbon emissions?

Pengfei Cheng,
Yuhao Wang &
Mengzhen Wang

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume 11, Article number: 1233 (2024) Cite this article

Open access
Published: 17 September 2024



Abstract


Our study examines the relationship between intellectual property rights protection (IPRP) and carbon emissions (CE) using an unbalanced panel data set from 116 countries spanning 2008–2020. The analysis reveals a positive relationship between IPRP and CE. Mechanism tests and nonlinear analysis further elucidate this relationship. The mediation effect results indicated that IPRP indirectly fostered CE growth by inhibiting energy structure’s improvement, demonstrating that IPRP exacerbated the dependence on traditional high-carbon energy sources, hindering the transition to cleaner, more efficient energy systems. The analysis also revealed that IPRP indirectly promoted the increase of CE by promoting technological progress and economic growth. The moderation effect results suggest that political stability could mitigate the positive impact of IPRP on CE. Furthermore, the analysis reveals an inverted U-shaped relationship between IPRP and CE, indicating that while IPRP promotes an increase in CE in the initial stages, its intensification suppresses CE growth beyond a turning point. Hence, our study provides new theoretical and empirical evidence to understand the complex relationship between IPRP and CE. It also offers policy recommendations for effectively integrating global carbon reduction efforts with intellectual property policies.
Similar content being viewed by others



The impact of intellectual property demonstration policies on carbon emission efficiency
Article Open access03 July 2024



Do innovation and renewable energy transition play their role in environmental sustainability in Western Europe?
Article Open access02 January 2024



The inferiors imitate the superiors: the government’s low-carbon concerns and the renewable energy technology of firms
Article Open access27 February 2024


Introduction


In the face of increasingly severe environmental challenges today, particularly issues related to global warming and glacier melting, scholars have extensively explored methods to reduce carbon emissions (CE) to promote sustainable development. A substantial body of research suggests that improving energy structure (ES) and technological progress (TP) are crucial pathways to achieving carbon reduction (Li and Lin 2017). As a key factor influencing innovation and social development, intellectual property rights protection (IPRP) is also an indispensable part of the global economy (Zhu et al. 2022). However, over the past few decades, many countries have faced varying degrees of intellectual property infringement issues (Brander et al. 2017). With the international community’s collective efforts to reduce CE continuously strengthening, gaining a deeper understanding of the impact and mechanisms of IPRP on CE is of paramount importance for achieving global decarbonization goals.

Most existing studies focus on the innovation or growth impacts of IPRP. These studies illustrate that IPRP grants patent holders the right to control the knowledge they produce, thereby generating returns to fuel further research and development (R&D) investments. It also protects cutting-edge technology firms, enabling them to capture markets and earn substantial profits, ultimately fostering economic growth (Stiglitz 2017). Conversely, Auriol et al. (2023), Goldberg and Pavcnik (2007), and Madsen et al. (2010) argue that innovation and economic growth driven by “imitation” dominate in most developing countries. An excessive level of IPRP would restrict their ability to “imitate”, thereby impeding TP and economic growth.

However, the environmental impact of IPRP, particularly its effects on CE, has received little attention, despite being an important issue worldwide. Qian et al. (2023) regard China’s national intellectual property demonstration city policy as a quasi-natural experiment in intellectual property system construction and employ the differences-in-differences method to examine the impact of IPRP on CE. They find that the carbon reduction effect of IPRP is more pronounced in lower administrative level cities, small and medium-sized cities, and cities in western China. Yang et al. (2022), using a spatial econometric perspective and empirical evidence from a panel of Chinese cities, show that the spatial coordination of IPRP contributes to reducing CE. Similarly, Oyebanji et al. (2022), focusing on Spain, find that IPRP promotes the development of environmentally friendly technologies while reducing CE emissions.

Obviously, most studies are focused on specific countries or regions, lacking a global perspective, and there is no consensus that innovation, as a result of increased levels of intellectual property protection, can effectively reduce CE. In other words, the mechanism by which IPRP affects CE remains unclear. In addition, these studies often fail to fully consider the impact of other economic and political environmental factors, such as a stable political environment, as well as the nonlinear relationship between IPRP and CE.

Our study contributes to the existing literature in the following ways. First, we assess the impact of IPRP on CE by adopting a global perspective, which helps to evaluate the influence of IPRP on the worldwide environment more accurately. By using unbalanced panel data from 116 countries between 2008 and 2020, we find that an increase in the level of IPRP leads to an increase in CE, which challenges the traditional notion that IPRP unconditionally promotes environmental sustainability. Second, our results reveal the mechanism by which IPRP affects CE, providing a new perspective for policy formulation. Specifically, IPRP indirectly promotes CE growth by inhibiting ES improvement. On the contrary, IPRP may steer TP toward profitability rather than environmental sustainability, eventually increasing CE. Additionally, IPRP indirectly promotes the increase of CE by stimulating economic growth (EG). We also explore the moderating effect of political stability (PS) on the relationship between IPRP and CE. Finally, we find an inverted U-shaped relationship between IPRP and CE, indicating that the impact of IPRP on CE turns from positive to negative after reaching a certain threshold, highlighting the complexity and dual effects of IPRP. This finding significantly adds to the existing literature.

READ ON/DOWNLOAD PDF

Does intellectual property rights protection help reduce carbon emissions? | Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (nature.com)

Can carbon trading policy boost upgrading and optimization of industrial structure? An empirical study based on data from China

Daoping Chen,
Haifeng Liao & Hong Tan

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume 11, Article number: 1234 (2024) Cite this article

Open access
Published: 17 September 2024

Abstract


Carbon trading policy is a major mechanism innovation based on the market to deal with climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As the scale of China’s carbon trading market gradually expands, the impact of carbon trading policy on the upgrading and optimization of industrial structures has attracted much attention. This paper depicts the upgrading of industrial structure through the advancement of industrial structure, and the optimization of industrial structure through the rationalization of industrial structure. Using panel data from 201 prefecture-level and above cities in China from 2004 to 2018, this study empirically investigates the impact and mechanism of carbon trading policy on the upgrading and optimization of industrial structure based on a double difference and mediation effect model. The research results show that carbon trading policy can generally promote the upgrading and optimization of industrial structures, but there are significant differences between promoting the upgrading and optimization of industrial structures. Mechanism analysis shows that carbon trading policy can promote the upgrading and optimization of industrial structure through technological innovation, and technological innovation has an intermediary effect. Heterogeneity analysis shows that there are significant differences between the eastern region and the central and western regions in carbon trading policy promoting the upgrading and optimization of industrial structure. Carbon trading policy is conducive to the upgrading of industrial structure in the eastern region, while they are conducive to the optimization of industrial structure in the central and western regions. In addition, it was found that there are significant differences in the promotion of the upgrading and optimization of industrial structure by carbon trading policy among cities with different levels of human capital, fiscal expenditure, foreign investment, and infrastructure. These conclusions can provide policy inspiration for high-quality green economic development, environmental policy formulation, industrial policy formulation, and urban resource allocation.
Similar content being viewed by others



The influence and acting pattern of China's national carbon emission trading scheme on regional ecologicalization efficiency of industry
Article Open access13 July 2022



The impact of intellectual property demonstration policies on carbon emission efficiency
Article Open access03 July 2024



Threshold effect of technological innovation on carbon emission intensity based on multi-source heterogeneous data
Article Open access04 November 2023


Introduction


Carbon trading policy (CTP) refers to carbon emissions trading policy, which is an environmental regulation tool to solve global warming. Specifically, CTP is a policy measure used by the government to regulate the allocation and trading of total carbon emissions and carbon emission quotas (Zhang et al., 2014). China’s CTP includes six aspects: defining the scope of emission control, setting the total amount, allocating quotas, trading systems, reporting and verification mechanisms, and compliance and punishment mechanisms. CTP aims to create a free trading environment, fully leverage the role of the market in factor allocation, and ultimately achieve optimal allocation of carbon resources. The economic activities of human society are bound by the environment and in turn, affect the environment. Before the industrial revolution, the scale and scope of economic activities were small, and the impact of the environment on economic development and economic activities on the environment was inadvertently ignored. After the industrial revolution, the world seems to have found a fast path to economic development, but the problem of environmental pollution has become increasingly prominent.

In recent decades, environmental pollution has become a key factor restricting economic development. In the 1980s, the international community officially raised the issue of climate change for the first time, believing that the production of large amounts of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from fossil fuels is the main cause of global climate change (Anjos et al., 2022; Jang et al., 2024). Only by working together can countries around the world jointly address this challenge. The market mechanism based on carbon emission trading has become a consensus as a new path for cooperation in solving greenhouse gas emissions problems. In 2011, China approved the pilot work of carbon trading in some provinces and cities, aiming to control greenhouse gas emissions by establishing a carbon trading market and conducting market trading based on greenhouse gas emission quotas. At present, the scale of quota trading volume in China’s pilot areas is second only to the European carbon market, and CTP has become an important means for China to promote enterprise emission reduction (Lv and Bai, 2021).

Industrial structure refers to the allocation and interdependence of resources between industries in a country or region during the process of social reproduction (Kuznets, 1957). It is generally believed that changes in industrial structure include two aspects: upgrading of industrial structure (UIS) and optimization of industrial structure (OIS) (Guan et al., 2022; Song et al., 2024). UIS refers to the process of transforming industrial structural systems from lower-level forms to higher-level forms. OIS refers to the coordination between various industries to maintain strong industrial structure transformation ability and good adaptability. Both UIS and OIS reflect the characteristics of changes in industrial structure. The difference lies in that UIS reflects the process of industrial structure evolution from lower to higher levels, such as the sequential transformation of industrial structure from labor-intensive to capital-intensive, and then to knowledge and technology-intensive, or the transformation from low value-added industries to high value-added industries, or the transformation from primary product industries to manufacturing intermediate and final product industries, which also means the continuous upgrading and innovation of traditional industrial production technology or the improvement of product technology content. OIS reflects the proportion balance and coordination degree between industries and reflects the efficiency of resource allocation, coordination, and utilization among industries. Under the constraints of productivity level and resource endowment, it is necessary to allocate production factors reasonably according to specific demand structures, achieve mutual coordination between industries, and maintain strong industrial structure transformation ability and good adaptability.

When the economy reaches a certain stage of development, UIS and OIS are crucial. Since the reform and opening up, relying on the development strategy of heavy industry first, China’s economy has made remarkable achievements in the world (Du et al., 2024). However, this mode of development has obvious characteristics of high pollution and extensive (Yu et al., 2020). High pollution not only aggravates the burden on the environment, but also makes the coupling degree between the input structure and output structure of factors low, resources are not effectively utilized, the transformation ability and adaptability of industrial structure are at a low level, and the economic growth is insufficient. Extensive development has resulted in a smaller share of industries with higher labor productivity, a lower level of industrial structure upgrading, and a lower quality of economic development. UIS and OIS are necessary processes for sustained economic growth and high-quality development in China (Xi and Zhai, 2022).

Can CTP, as an environmental regulatory tool, promote China’s UIS and OIS while reducing carbon emissions? UIS and OIS are obviously related to the environment. The reason why the current industrial structure is not optimized enough and needs to be upgraded is mainly because the industrial structure is highly polluted and extensive in economic development. An earlier study showed that the economic losses caused by environmental pollution accounted for at least 8 to 15% of the average annual GDP (World Bank report, 2007), which shows that there is still much room for improvement in UIS and OIS. CTP is directly aimed at the environment but may ultimately promote UIS and OIS, and UIS and OIS can better ensure the green nature of GDP. Under the incentive of CTP, enterprises can obtain new competitive advantages through the reallocation of resources, while enterprises at a competitive disadvantage may withdraw from the industry. The result of survival of the fittest makes the industry more coordinated to maintain strong industrial structure transformation ability and good adaptability. Some pollution-intensive enterprises may transfer to areas with low environmental standards in order to reduce environmental costs. This transfer not only increases the coordination between industries but also increases the adaptability between industries. CTP can also promote enterprises to develop advanced environmental protection technology through technological innovation to reduce costs, optimize internal production structure through advanced technology, and realize the upgrading of industrial structure. However, there are other possibilities. CTP has increased the product cost on the whole, and the enterprises in the industry are not adapted to the market at all, let alone the enhancement of conversion ability. Enterprises may also not have enough resources to mobilize for technological innovation, and the crowdsourcing transfer of many pollution-intensive enterprises may produce a synthetic fallacy. These circumstances may make CTP unable to promote UIS and OIS.

As the carbon trading market gradually expands, it is urgent to empirically understand the impact of CTP on China’s UIS and OIS. In relevant research fields, existing literature has mostly focused on the mechanism design of carbon trading, the emission reduction effects of CTP, and the impact of CTP on the economy. A small amount of literature has theoretically analyzed the impact of carbon trading environmental regulations on industrial structure, but there is almost no literature that studies the impact of China’s CTP on industrial structure from an empirical perspective and further explores the mechanism of this impact. Therefore, the research in this paper has important theoretical and practical significance.

Compared with the existing research, the contributions of this paper include the following three aspects. First, it is the first time to use the panel data of prefecture-level and above cities to study the impact of CTP on UIS and OIS. The sample size of panel data of cities at prefecture-level and above is larger, the data contains more information, and the practical characteristics of the impact of CTP on UIS and OIS can be more carefully captured. Secondly, it reveals the mechanism of the impact of CTP on UIS and OIS. In theory, both the “compliance cost hypothesis” and the “Porter hypothesis” indicate that CTP may promote UIS and OIS by promoting technological innovation, but this mechanism has not been verified empirically (Zhang and Duan, 2020; Porter and Linde, 1995). This study empirically found that CTP can promote UIS and OIS by promoting technological innovation. Thirdly, it expands the scope of research on the heterogeneity of the impact of CTP on UIS and OIS. The usual research on heterogeneity only discusses regional heterogeneity. This study not only studies regional heterogeneity but also studies the heterogeneity of urban characteristics in more detail. Characterized by human capital, financial expenditure, foreign investment, and infrastructure level, this study found that the role of CTP in promoting UIS and OIS is also different if the city characteristics are different.

READ ON/DOWNLOAD PDF

Can carbon trading policy boost upgrading and optimization of industrial structure? An empirical study based on data from China | Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (nature.com)

Melting glaciers of Central Asia worry scientists

The shrinking glaciers have created a new threat for Kyrgyz towns and cities, with meltwater forming new lakes before tumbling down mountains in dangerous torrents.


Updated - September 18, 2024 
AFP


This photograph taken on July 7, 2024 shows a general view of the Adygene glacier in the Tian Shan mountain range. The effects of a warming planet have been particularly visible in Central Asia, which has seen a wave of extreme weather disasters. Glaciologist Gulbara Omorova hiked six hours up a mountain of the Tian Shan range in Kyrgyzstan to record the melting process of a glacier. | Photo Credit: AFP

Near a wooden hut high up in the Kyrgyz mountains, scientist Gulbara Omorova walked to a pile of grey rocks, reminiscing how the same spot was a glacier just a few years ago.

At an altitude of 4,000 metres, the 35-year-old researcher is surrounded by the giant peaks of the towering Tian Shan range that also stretches into China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The area is home to thousands of glaciers that are melting at an alarming rate in Central Asia, already hard-hit by climate change.

A glaciologist, Omarova is recording that process -- worried about the future.

She hiked six hours to get to the modest triangular-shaped hut that serves as a science station -- almost up in the clouds.

"Eight to 10 years ago you could see the glacier with snow," Omorova told AFP.



This photograph taken on July 7, 2024 shows a general view of the Tian Shan mountain range. The effects of a warming planet have been particularly visible in Central Asia, which has seen a wave of extreme weather disasters. Glaciologist Gulbara Omorova hiked six hours up a mountain of the Tian Shan range in Kyrgyzstan to record the melting process of a glacier. | Photo Credit: AFP

"But in the last three to four years, it has disappeared completely. There is no snow, no glacier," she said.

The effects of a warming planet have been particularly visible in Central Asia, which has seen a wave of extreme weather disasters.

The melting of thousands of glaciers is a major threat to people in the landlocked region that already suffers from a shortage of water.


Acting as water towers, glaciers are crucial to the region's food security and vital freshwater reserves are now dwindling fast.
‘Measuring everything’

Equipped with a measuring device, Omorova kneeled over a torrent of melted water, standing on grey-covered ice shimmering in strong sunshine.

"We are measuring everything," she said. "The glaciers cannot regenerate because of rising temperatures."



Glaciologist Gulbara Omorova takes shelter from the rain under a stone in the Tian Shan mountain range on July 7, 2024. The effects of a warming planet have been particularly visible in Central Asia, which has seen a wave of extreme weather disasters. Glaciologist Gulbara Omorova hiked six hours up a mountain of the Tian Shan range in Kyrgyzstan to record the melting process of a glacier. | Photo Credit: AFP

A little further on, she points to the shrinking Adygene glacier, saying it has retreated by "around 16 centimetres (six inches)" every year.

"That's more than 900 metres since the 1960s," she said.

The once majestic glacier is only one of thousands in the area that are slowly disappearing.


Between 14 and 30% of glaciers in the Tian-Shan and Pamir -- the two main mountain ranges in Central Asia -- have melted over the last 60 years, according to a report by the Eurasian Development Bank.

Omorova warned that things are only becoming worse.

"The melting is much more intense than in previous years," she said.

With scientists warning that 2024 is likely to be the hottest year on record, professions like hers have hugely grown in importance.

But resources are scarce in Kyrgyzstan, one of the poorest countries in former Soviet Central Asia.

"We lack measuring equipment and there is not enough money to transport things to our observation station, where we don't even have electricity," Omorova said.

She hopes the Kyrygz government will draw up a law to protect the ice-covered giants.


This aerial photograph taken on July 8, 2024 shows lakes of melted water in the Tian Shan mountain range. The effects of a warming planet have been particularly visible in Central Asia, which has seen a wave of extreme weather disasters. Glaciologist Gulbara Omorova hiked six hours up a mountain of the Tian Shan range in Kyrgyzstan to record the melting process of a glacier. | Photo Credit: AFP
Dangerous torrents

The shrinking glaciers have also created a new threat for Kyrgyz towns and cities, with meltwater forming new lakes before tumbling down mountains in dangerous torrents, including towards the capital Bishkek.

Further down the valley -- in a grass-covered part of the mountain at 2,200 metres -- two scientists, brothers Sergei and Pavel Yerokhin, worked on the banks of the fast-flowing water.

The elder brother, 72-year-old Sergei, warned of the dangers of the torrents.

"This water mass takes rocks with it, flows down the valley and can reach towns," he told AFP.

He said their task was to monitor and predict the water flow and to "draw up maps to ensure people and infrastructure don't end up in these dangerous areas".

His brother Pavel had a sensor installed about 50 centimetres above the water that would send radio signals in case of flooding.
'Halve by 2050'

For the Kyrgyz government, the melting glaciers threaten more than infrastructure damage.


Glaciologist Gulbara Omorova takes measurements in a lake of melted water in the Tian Shan mountain range on July 8, 2024. The effects of a warming planet have been particularly visible in Central Asia, which has seen a wave of extreme weather disasters. Glaciologist Gulbara Omorova hiked six hours up a mountain of the Tian Shan range in Kyrgyzstan to record the melting process of a glacier. | Photo Credit: AFP

Water distribution in the region -- devised in the Soviet era -- remains a thorny issue and is a frequent source of tension between neighbours.

Mountainous Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan -- home to around 10,000 glaciers each, according to Omorova -- are the main water providers for Central Asia.

"We share water with our neighbours downstream," Omorova said, referring to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, home to most of Central Asia's population.

Aside from rising temperatures, the glaciers also face another threat: a growing appetite for immense natural resources in the region, including for gold, whose extraction with chemicals accelerates the melting of ice.

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have stepped up efforts to draw attention to a looming catastrophe.

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov warned last year that forecasts show Central Asian glaciers "will halve by 2050 and disappear completely by 2100".

Published - September 18, 2024 

 

Haiti Builds a Path to a Clean, Resilient Energy Future

USAID-NREL Partnership Works To Fortify Haiti’s Energy Sector

Sept. 18, 2024 | By Courtney Hausler and Tara McMurtry |

USAID and NREL are partnering with Haitian stakeholders to boost workforce skills, build strong regulatory frameworks, and deploy advanced renewable energy technologies. Photo from Flickr

About 49% of the population of Haiti had access to electricity as of 2022. In rural areas, that number is closer to 2%, and while 80% of Haiti's urban areas have access to electricity, that access may not be reliable.

"Even when a household is connected to the power grid, they might only have power for three to eight hours a day." explained Josue Noel, the energy program management specialist at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). "In the event of an outage, they may be without electricity for days or even weeks."

More than two centuries of foreign interference, political instability, economic constraints, and natural disasters have left the Caribbean nation one of the poorest in the world and among those with the highest rates of energy poverty. Haiti's energy access and infrastructure remain critically underdeveloped.

In addition, Haiti relies heavily on imported fossil fuels, which are expensive, harmful to the environment, and exacerbate existing challenges to Haiti's energy sector. Renewable energy technologies like solar power are on the rise but have been slowed by longstanding challenges, including limited opportunities to gain specialized technical expertise.

In the face of these obstacles, Haiti is forging a path toward energy resilience with support from USAID and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Central to this effort is the development of energy modeling frameworks and trainings, microgrids, agrivoltaics, and off-grid solar power to enhance energy resilience and security in Haiti. Through a series of collaborative projects, USAID and NREL are working together with Haitian stakeholders to enhance local workforce capabilities, develop robust regulatory frameworks, and, eventually, deploy cutting-edge technologies.

A Comprehensive Master Plan and Empowering Modeling Tools

In a bid to reshape Haiti's energy landscape, USAID and NREL will support Haiti's ministries and government in formulating the country's Integrated Resource and Resilience plan, which is a comprehensive energy sector master plan that envisions a sustainable, secure, and resilient energy future for Haiti. This plan will serve as a long-term guide for energy stakeholders and will include key analysis, cost estimations, and planning to help inform decision-making.

Scenario modeling is a key component of effective energy planning and implementation, but stakeholders need the right tools to create those scenarios. To help Haitian stakeholders use modeling scenarios for their energy planning, USAID and NREL developed a modeling framework, along with an accompanying training series, using NREL's open-source Engage™ energy modeling tool. The series includes an overview of how the Engage tool works, as well as exercises specifically designed for Haiti's energy needs, like expanding the power system, dealing with fuel shortages, developing microgrids, and assessing the economic viability of transmission strategies. These trainings will be the foundation for future modeling efforts related to Haiti's energy master plan.

The Powerful Promise of Minigrids

Minigrids offer one promising solution for improving Haiti's energy access and resilience. These small-scale localized power networks can provide reliable electricity for Haiti's remote and underserved areas. Recognizing minigrids' transformative potential, the USAID-NREL Partnership is prioritizing the development of the national minigrid regulation in Haiti. Through close cooperation with regulatory authorities and developers, the team is laying the groundwork for the widespread adoption of minigrid solutions in an effort to accelerate combating energy poverty and promoting local socioeconomic development.

"I expect USAID-NREL's help with developing minigrid regulation to play a catalytic role in boosting minigrid development in Haiti," said Nicolas Allien, a senior energy consultant who previously served as head of the energy unit at Haiti's Ministry of Public Works, Transportation, and Communication. "Of course, the next step is to make sure those regulations are adopted and enforced."

Agrivoltaics Can Reconcile Energy Access and Food Security

Haiti enjoys abundant sunlight throughout the year, making it an excellent candidate for solar power systems. However, the land most suitable for solar generation deployment often overlaps with prime agricultural areas for small-scale farmers, creating potential for conflict between energy access and the preservation of local food security and livelihoods.

To address the intricate connection between energy access and food security, the work with Haiti explores the potential for agrivoltaics—a convergence of solar energy generation with agricultural activities. Through research and stakeholder engagement, USAID and NREL published a framework to adapt agrivoltaic solutions for minigrid contexts in Haiti. These solutions aim to boost energy production, thereby addressing energy poverty, and increase agricultural yields, thereby addressing food insecurity.

An overview of agrivoltaic benefits in minigrid contexts, from the Adapting Agrivoltaics for Solar Mini-Grids in Haiti report (March 2024). Illustration from Chris Schwing, NREL

Off-Grid Solar Training Can Energize Local Workforce Development

In parallel with other efforts like minigrid development and national grid planning, off-grid solar also has the potential to play an important role in advancing Haiti's energy access. As the name suggests, off-grid solar systems operate independently from the traditional electricity grid. However, the market and business models for off-grid solar in Haiti are still nascent. This highlights a need to build foundational capacity for off-grid solar—in other words, to prepare Haitian stakeholders to understand, plan, and manage off-grid solar and other clean energy projects.

"Off-grid solar, along with minigrids, agrivoltaics, and other solutions based on renewables, are the future for Haiti," Noel said. "But one major issue for us, in both the public and private sector, is access to trained, qualified professionals."

With these needs in mind, NREL worked with the Faculté Des Sciences de l'Université d'Etat d'Haïti to develop a bilingual primer course that provides key information and concepts for off-grid solar in Haiti. This program aims to equip stakeholders with the requisite skills and knowledge to leverage off-grid solar technologies effectively.

Resilient Energy Planning Work

As an island nation with an evolving yet vulnerable power grid, Haiti must strategically integrate resilience into its energy system planning. Leveraging investments in renewables, distributed energy resources, and energy storage is key to improving the resiliency and security of Haiti's power system and electricity supply.

Recognizing the crucial role of energy storage in strengthening Haiti's energy resilience, NREL conducted four one-hour workshops with staff members from Haiti's energy-related government ministries. Focused on the USAID-NREL Resilient Energy Platform and NREL's Power Sector Resilience Planning Guidebook, these workshops aimed to build participants' ability to understand energy resilience metrics, assess power system vulnerabilities, and develop stakeholder-driven mitigation strategies.

Looking Ahead to a Resilient Energy Future

As Haiti continues its journey of recovery and resilience, the USAID-NREL Partnership envisions further collaboration and expansion, including additional capacity-building, implementation support, and pilot projects. NREL has proposed to collaborate with USAID on a second round of objectives aimed at boosting Haiti's energy sector. The objectives focus on improving resilience in critical facilities; enhancing workforce development with a focus on women and youth; strengthening technical capacity for energy modeling; and promoting mentorship, career growth, and gender equality.

"I see our work so far as the first phase of a very long-term and fruitful collaboration," Allien said.

Acknowledging the significant challenges facing Haiti and the immense effort required to strengthen its energy infrastructure, the research team emphasizes the importance of realism and transparency moving forward. While celebrating the progress made, the team nevertheless recognizes the ongoing challenges and complexities involved in deploying sustainable energy solutions in Haiti. Through continued collaboration and dedication, the USAID-NREL Partnership will continue to drive positive change and pave the way for a more resilient Haiti.

Learn more about the USAID-NREL Partnership and our work in Haiti.

 

Some healthy fish have bacteria in their brains

Microbes in animal brains are typically linked to disease

Brains are usually thought of as a bacteria-free zone. But that’s not the case for certain fish, including rainbow trout (illustrated) and other species in the salmon family.

By Erin Garcia e Jesús

9 hours ago

Some fish have bacteria on the brain.

Wild and lab-grown members of the salmon family including European rainbow trout, Chinook salmon and Gila trout harbor active microbial communities inside their brains, researchers report September 18 in Science Advances. Lab-reared rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) brains may source more than half of bacteria from their blood and guts, suggesting that microbes from other parts of the body traverse the blood-brain barrier to colonize the organ.

Animal brains are thought to be free of bacteria, with any invasion typically linked to disease (SN: 3/1/23). A growing body of work, for instance, shows that brain-infiltrating microbes may be linked with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease in people. But the new finding hints that bacteria aren’t necessarily bad news for fish brains. For the most part, the animals seem healthy despite having microbes inside their skulls.

The brain bacteria might help fish sense microbial cues in the environment, says Irene Salinas, an evolutionary immunologist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. That could help migratory fish navigate rivers.

Salinas and colleagues probed rainbow trout brain samples for bacteria, first removing the blood from the animals’ bodies to avoid contamination. Counts of genetic material from four brain regions showed that fish brains had similar levels of bacteria as the spleen, but a thousandth the levels of their guts. Wild rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and Gila trout (O. gilae) also have brain microbiomes, although with different communities than lab-grown trout and in varying amounts possibly sourced from different organs.

The team extracted and grew a total of 54 isolates from lab-reared fish, showing that the microbiome is active in the brain. Genetic analyses also revealed signs that bacteria adapt to living in the brain, including having structures that may help microbes cross the blood-brain barrier. Whether the microbes hunker down over the long haul or the populations are constantly replenished from other organs is still unclear.    

Brain bacteria may not always be beneficial for fish, however. Adult Chinook salmon brains can have buildup of amyloid-beta, the protein involved in Alzheimer’s, and tend to have more bacteria than juveniles do as the adults approach death. Similar to how the gut microbes go out of whack, it’s possible that sometimes “microbiota in the brain may become dysregulated” and cause problems for the animals, Salinas says.  

Still, the findings open up questions about whether bacteria in the brain is a trait unique to fishes, or whether other vertebrates have brains chock-full of bacteria, too. And when it comes to fish, “there’s a lot of diversity of different fishes on the planet,” Salinas says. Perhaps deep-sea fish or sharks have unique bacteria in their brains that help them adapt to their environments.   

Citations

A. Mani et al. A brain microbiome in salmonids at homeostasis. Science Advances. Published online September 18, 2024. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ado0277.

About Erin Garcia de JesúsE-mail
X
Erin I. Garcia de Jesus is a staff writer at Science News. She holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Washington and a master’s in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

New study challenges the gender-equality paradox

by Mane Kara-Yakoubian
September 18, 2024
in Social Psychology



A study published in Journal of Personality & Social Psychology challenges the prevailing notion of the “gender-equality paradox” by deconstructing how gender differences vary across societies with high gender equality.

The gender-equality paradox has garnered significant attention, positing that as societies become more gender-equal, gender differences in various domains like personality, attitudes, and preferences paradoxically become larger. This theory, rooted in evolutionary psychology, suggests that more gender-equal environments give individuals the freedom to express intrinsic gender differences, which then become more pronounced.

Previous research has supported this notion by examining cross-country differences in gender gaps using gender-equality indices. However, the accuracy of the methods used in these studies, particularly the reliance on difference scores to measure gender gaps, has been questioned by methodologists.

In this work, Ville-Juhani Ilmarinen and Jan-Erik Lönnqvist revisited these findings to critically examine whether the gender-equality paradox is a genuine phenomenon or simply a product of inadequate statistical methods.

The researchers analyzed data from three large cross-cultural datasets, focusing on examining specific country-level data for both men and women, rather than simply calculating a difference score between genders, which has been the traditional method used in past research.

In Study 1, they used data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to explore gender differences in attitudes toward science. This involved analyzing three key variables: science self-efficacy (SSE), broad interest in science, and enjoyment of science. The sample sizes for these analyses were substantial, with 384,897 individuals from 61 countries for SSE, 330,681 individuals from 50 countries for broad interest in science, and 396,470 individuals from 61 countries for enjoyment of science.

The main predictor for these attitudes was the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI), a widely used measure of gender equality that takes into account factors such as political empowerment, economic participation, and educational attainment.

In Study 2, the authors examined economic preferences across 75 countries, using data on variables such as altruism, trust, patience, risk-taking, and reciprocity. The participant count ranged from 73,177 to 74,443, depending on the specific economic preference analyzed. To assess gender differences, they reconstructed a composite Gender Equality Index (GEI), which included the GGGI, along with other country-level indicators like labor force participation and the number of years since women’s suffrage.

The results from Study 1 revealed that the gender-equality paradox did not apply universally across all science attitudes. For science self-efficacy and broad interest in science, gender differences did not significantly increase in more gender-equal countries. However, in the case of enjoyment of science, a modest widening of the gender gap was observed, primarily driven by a decrease in girls’ enjoyment of science in highly gender-equal societies. This result challenged the simplistic interpretation of the paradox, showing that boys’ and girls’ attitudes do not always diverge in more gender-equal environments.

In Study 2, the results were more complex. For variables like altruism, both men’s and women’s scores shifted in response to gender equality, but men showed a lower level of altruism in gender-equal countries, while both men and women exhibited greater patience. However, the gender gap in patience increased slightly because the change was more pronounced for men.

In other domains, such as trust and risk-taking, the differences were less clear-cut, with gender gaps either remaining stable or showing smaller, non-significant changes. Although gender differences might increase in more gender-equal societies, the patterns are domain-specific and not as uniform as the paradox suggests.

One limitation is the reliance on publicly available datasets, which constrained the scope of this reanalysis.

The research, “Deconstructing the Gender-Equality Paradox”, was authored by Ville-Juhani Ilmarinen and Jan-Erik Lönnqvist.