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What is the carbon footprint of space tourism?

Posted on July 22, 2021July 26, 2021 by dishanth

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos does not appear best pleased with Richard Branson stealing some of his thunder with the Virgin Galactic launch: Branson went 53 miles (85 kilometers) into suborbital space on Sunday while Bezos has a self-funded trip to space planned for July 20. Bezos published a document comparing his Blue Origin to Branson’s Virgin Galactic, including its impact on the ozone layer.

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic has only said that it is equivalent to a business class return ticket on a transatlantic flight, which the Financial Times calculates to be 1,238 kilograms of carbon dioxide per person.

A much earlier article in the Wall Street Journal suggests that it is higher:

“According to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s environmental assessment of the launch and re-entry of Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft, one launch-land cycle emits about 30 tons of carbon dioxide, or about five tons per passenger. That is about five times the carbon footprint of a flight from Singapore to London.”

For something that isn’t going to happen very often, that isn’t such a big deal, even if it is nothing more than an expensive joyride. But as in everything else these days, you have to go beyond just the fuel burn.

The Virgin Galactic plane burns HTPB (Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene) and nitrous oxide, sometimes referred to as rubber cement and laughing gas. HTPB is the main ingredient of polyurethane and is made from butadiene, a hydrocarbon extracted during the steam cracking process used to make ethylene. The heat needed to make the 900 degrees Celcius steam comes from natural gas, and one study estimated there is about a metric ton of CO2 emitted for every metric ton of ethylene, so it probably is about the same for butadiene.1 So that would mean that emissions including upstream manufacturing emissions of the fuel are double, or about 60 metric tons of CO2.

This doesn’t include the fuel used for the big plane that carried the craft up, and of course, it doesn’t include the embodied carbon from building the whole operation.

Blue Origin

Bezos’ New Shepard is a rocket, not a space plane, and needs a little more oomph to get off the ground, so it is running on liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The products of combustion are water and a tiny bit of nitrogen oxide.

However, hydrogen has a big carbon footprint of its own. Most of it is “grey” hydrogen made by steam reformation of natural gas, a process that releases 7 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of hydrogen. Compressing it and cooling it into liquid hydrogen is also energy-intensive; in an earlier post, the company making it said it took 15 kilowatt-hours of electricity per kilogram of hydrogen. A lot of liquid hydrogen is made in Texas, where according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the electricity emits 991 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour, or 0.449 kilograms per kilowatt-hour, or 6.74 kilograms per kilogram of hydrogen.2 That totals roughly 14 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of liquid hydrogen.

Compressing and liquifying oxygen is energy intensive too: according to engineer John Armstrong, to produce one metric ton of liquid oxygen (LOX) you need about 3.6 megawatt-hours of electricity. Applying Texas electricity, you get 1.61 kilograms of CO2 making 1 kilogram of LOX.

Bezos hasn’t released any details on the amount of fuel it takes to launch his rocket, but a Redditor did some estimates and came up with 24,000 kilograms of fuel. At a 5.5 mix ratio (hydrogen is really light, 1/16 the weight of oxygen) you get:

4363 kilograms of hydrogen X 14 kilograms of CO2 = 61 metric tons of CO2
19637 kilograms of oxygen x 1.61 kilograms of CO2= 31.6 metric tons of CO2
Totalling 93 metric tons of CO2 per launch

None of this includes the incalculable upfront carbon emitted making all the prototypes and infrastructure and the rockets and planes themselves, a Life Cycle Analysis of the whole enterprise would be mind-boggling, but that is another story.

So What’s the Big Deal?

In the larger scheme of things, it’s not much, with Virgin Galactic at 60 metric tons of CO2, Blue Origin at 93 metric tons. After all, a full 777-200 going from Chicago to Hong Kong pumps out 351 metric tons and that kind of flight happens many times per day. It’s carrying many more people many more miles, but the total CO2 emissions from flying dwarf that of these rockets.

It looks even less dramatic when you compare it to the average footprint of the billionaire who could afford a $250,000 ticket; he probably already has a carbon footprint of 60 to 80 metric tons per year flying private between multiple residences.

In the end one can probably conclude that we don’t need fewer rockets and less space tourism, we need fewer billionaires.

Source Treehugger

Biden’s clean energy plan would cut emissions and save 317,000 lives

Posted on July 13, 2021July 13, 2021 by dishanth

A Biden administration plan to force the rapid uptake of renewable energy would swiftly cut planet-heating emissions and save hundreds of thousands of lives from deadly air pollution, a new report has found amid growing pressure on the White House to deliver a major blow against the climate crisis.

Of various climate policy options available to the new administration, a clean energy standard would provide the largest net benefits to the US, according to the report, in terms of costs as well as lives saved.

A clean energy standard would require utilities to ratchet up the amount of clean energy, such as solar and wind, they use, through a system of incentives and penalties. The Biden administration hoped to include the measure in its major infrastructure bill but it was dropped after compromise negotiations with Republicans.

But the new report, conducted by a consortium of researchers from Harvard University, Georgia Institute of Technology and Syracuse University, suggests it would be the most effective tool in reaching a White House goal of 80% renewable energy use by 2030. Joe Biden has said he wants all electricity to be renewable by 2035.

A clean energy standard to reach the 80% goal by the end of the decade would save an estimated 317,500 lives in the US over the next 30 years, due to a sharp reduction in air pollution from the burning of coal, oil and gas. In 2030 alone, 9,200 premature deaths would be avoided once the emissions cut is achieved. The number of lives saved would be “immediate, widespread and substantial”, the report states.

A total of $1.13tn in health savings due to cleaner air would be achieved between now and 2050, with air quality improvements most acutely felt by black people who currently face disproportionate harm from living near highways and power plants.

Every state in the US would gain better air quality, the report found, although the greatest benefits would go to Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania and Illinois, all states with substantial fossil fuel infrastructure.

The rapid switch to renewables would cost around $342bn until 2050, via capital and maintenance costs, although fuel costs would dwindle as renewables are cheaper to run than fossil fuels. The study added, however, that the financial benefits from addressing the climate crisis would dwarf this figure, at nearly $637bn.

“The cost are much lower than we expected and the deaths avoided are much higher; there really is a huge opportunity here to address climate change and air quality,” said Kathy Fallon Lambert, a study co-author and an air quality expert at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

“This would be a huge leap in ambition and we’d see that in the health impacts, there would be millions of fewer asthma attacks, for example. And this doesn’t even consider the health impacts from heat and other climate-related causes.”

Lambert said a clean energy standard would be “extremely effective” at slashing emissions, far more so than other proposals such as a carbon tax.

Biden is facing pressure from environmentalists, as well as major companies such as Apple and Google, to implement the new standard after it was dropped from the infrastructure bill. The president has said the measure will be included in a new reconciliation bill that can pass along party lines, although that will require every single Democratic senator to vote for it, which will prove a challenge.

The White House is determined this will happen however, with Gina McCarthy, Biden’s top climate adviser, saying the measure is a “non-negotiable” in the next infrastructure package.

“We need to make sure that we’re sending a signal that we want renewable energy and that it’s going to win,” McCarthy told Punchbowl News last week.

This is the effect coronavirus has had on air pollution all across the world

Posted on April 28, 2020July 27, 2020 by dishanth

The coronavirus pandemic has lead to an increase in air quality all around the world. Lockdowns have resulted in factories and roads shutting, thus reducing emissions.
These 11 visualizations, using data from NASA’s Global Modeling and Data Assimilation team, show the dramatic impact lockdown measures have had on pollution levels.

To contain the coronavirus pandemic, billions of people have been told to stay at home. In China, authorities placed almost half a billion people under lockdown, the equivalent of nearly 7% of the world’s population. Many other countries have since taken similar measures, initially in hard-hit Italy and Spain, and more recently in the United States and India.

The restrictions have sent financial markets into free fall. But they have also given residents in some of the world’s most polluted cities something they have not experienced in years: clean air.

Reuters visualisations, based on data from NASA’s Global Modeling and Data Assimilation team, show how concentrations of some pollutants fell drastically after the lockdowns started.

Satellite observations record information on aerosols in the atmosphere. NASA’s model is then able to provide estimates of the distribution of these pollutants close to the Earth’s surface.

China

The maps below show how levels of PM2.5 nitrate fell in China’s Hubei province after the government imposed travel restrictions. Nitrate is one of the components that make up PM2.5, tiny particles, about 3% of the diameter of human hair, that can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, leading to heart disease, strokes or cancer.

Nitrate aerosols are formed from nitrogen compounds, which can be emitted by human activities, especially burning fuel and diesel.

“We may soon learn how much of an impact this temporary pause in pollution has had on human health and the environment, but the clearest takeaway from this event is how satellite measurements of nitrogen compounds can be used as an indicator of economic activity,” said Ryan Stauffer, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Ground station metrics from Wuhan, where the pandemic originated, show how certain pollutants including nitrogen dioxide were at record lows during the first few months of the year.

Some of the major sources of nitrogen dioxide are vehicle exhausts, power plants and wastewater treatment plants.

Scientists say nitrogen dioxide pollution has been steadily decreasing over the last few years. However, the lockdown may have contributed to this year’s drop.

The following charts show monthly averages of pollutants over the last seven years.

South Korea

In early March, South Korea reported a large increase in COVID-19 cases. Since then, ground stations have been measuring the lowest levels of some pollutants for seven years. Although South Korea did not impose major restrictions on residents, changes in daily activity could have contributed to the drop.

Italy

Similar patterns unfolded across Italy following the introduction of a nationwide lockdown on March 9. Restrictions had already been implemented in late February in some northern regions, where COVID-19 cases had surged.

The industrial belt across northern Italy often experiences high levels of air pollution, but estimates show otherwise this year.

Of the pollutants that fell most significantly in northern Italy, nitrogen dioxide stood out, according to data recorded at ground stations. Bergamo, one of the provinces most affected by the virus, has experienced improvements in air quality.

India

Every winter, New Delhi and other big cities in the north are enveloped in a blanket of smog as farmers burn crop residue. The air tends to clear a little in spring.

However, in the first few months of this year, India experienced a significant decline in some pollutants. The lockdown imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the country’s 1.3 billion people could be a major contributing factor. However, there may also be other factors impacting air quality, according to Pallavi Pant, an air quality scientist at the Health Effects Institute in Boston.

“Air pollution levels are often influenced by local meteorology, like temperature or wind speed. Several early analyses are showing declines in air pollution in regions where shutdowns have taken place. However, any such analyses should consider all relevant factors.” Pallavi Pant told Reuters.

Ground stations in northern India also show a downward trend in overall PM2.5, according to data from local authorities.

Beyond improvements in outdoor air quality, scientists are also curious how lockdowns have affected indoor air quality, with millions of people staying at home for far longer than usual.

“As we continue to talk about improvements in outdoor air quality, people are spending a lot more time indoors and the exposure patterns for indoor air pollution might be different at this time too,” said Pant.

Written by

Marco Hernandez, Data Visualization Developer, Reuters Graphics

This article was published in collaboration with Reuters Graphics.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

This is the global economic cost of air pollution

Posted on February 26, 2020August 12, 2020 by dishanth

Greenpeace research looks at the economic impact of air pollution.
In China, this is estimated at $900 billion a year. For the US, the figure is $600 billion.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air have released a new report about the costs of air pollution from fossil fuels, both human and economic. Burning gas, coal and oil results in three times as many deaths as road traffic accidents worldwide and it is estimated that air pollution has a $2.9 trillion economic cost, equating to 3.3 percent of the world’s GDP. In 2018, the report estimates that it was linked to 4.5 million deaths with PM2.5 pollution also responsible for 1.8 billion days of work absence, 4 million new cases of child asthma and 2 million preterm births.

It can have an impact on the economy in many forms such as higher rates of asthma, diabetes or chronic respiratory diseases leading to reduced ability to work and lower participation rates in the labor force. Children susceptible to asthma attacks also miss school days, impacting their learning while healthcare requirements can result in their guardians also taking extra time off work. According to the report, disability from chronic diseases cost the world’s economy $200 billion in 2018, with sick leave and preterm births costing $100 billion and $90 billion respectively.

The total annual cost of air pollution in China is estimated to be $900 billion each year with costs in the U.S. running to $600 billion annually. Indian cities have scored unfavorably in air pollution indexes for years and the issue costs the country $150 billion per year on average. In 2018, the cost of dirty air equated to 6.6 percent of Chinese GDP, 5.4 percent of India’s GDP and 3 percent of U.S. GDP.

The economic burden of air pollution.
Image: Statista

Written by

Niall McCarthy, Data Journalist, Statista

With the collaboration of Statista.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Poor air quality leads to depression and bipolar disorder, study finds

Posted on January 9, 2020January 6, 2020 by dishanth

Air pollution chokes lungs and shortens lives but is also linked to a higher risk of mental illnesses, said researchers on Tuesday in a study based on health data from millions of patients in the United States and Denmark.

People exposed to poor quality air in both countries were more likely to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder or depression, found the study, although critics argued it was flawed and said more research was needed to draw firm conclusions.

“There’s quite a few known triggers (for mental illness) but pollution is a new direction,” study leader Andrey Rzhetsky, of the University of Chicago told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“Research on dogs and rodents shows air pollution can get into the brain and cause inflammation which results in symptoms resembling depression. It’s quite possible that the same thing happens in humans.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that air pollution kills 7 million people each year – equivalent to 13 deaths every minute – more than the combined total of war, murder, tuberculosis, HIV, AIDs and malaria.

It could shorten the life expectancy of children born today by an average of 20 months, according to research published by U.S. nonprofit, the Health Effects Institute, earlier this year.

Increasing concern over the issue has seen cities including Paris, Bogota, and Jakarta experiment with car-free days.

But while pollution’s impact on physical health is well known, links with mental illness have been less explored.

Researchers compared health data and local pollution exposure for 151 million U.S. residents and 1.4 million Danish patients for the study published in the PLOS Biology journal.

Cartogram maps showing the spatial patterns of apparent neurological and psychiatric disorder prevalence inferred from IBM MarketScan database.
Image: PLOS Biology

For the Danish patients they compared mental health to exposure to air pollution up to the age of 10 while in the United States they looked at real-time pollution levels.

Childhood exposure was linked to a more than two-fold increase in schizophrenia among the Danish patients, said the researchers, as well as higher rates of personality disorder, depression and bipolar.

The U.S. data also found poor air quality was associated with higher levels of bipolar and depression, but did not find it was correlated to several other conditions including schizophrenia, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s disease.

However, the study has proved controversial.

A critical commentary by Stanford professor John Ioannidis, which was published alongside the study, said it raised an “intriguing possibility” that air pollution might cause mental illnesses but had failed to make a clear case.

“Despite analyses involving large datasets, the available evidence has substantial shortcomings and a long series of potential biases may invalidate the observed associations,” he wrote.

Written by

Sonia Elks, Journalist, Reuters

This article is published in collaboration with Thomson Reuters Foundation trust.org.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

This London street is the first in Britain to ban all petrol and diesel cars.

Posted on January 8, 2020August 12, 2020 by dishanth

A street in the heart of London’s financial district has banned petrol and diesel vehicles.
The aim is to bring nitrogen dioxide levels within guideline limits.
The 18-month trial will be used to consider similar plans for other streets.
Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to health in the UK, according to Public Health England.

One London street is taking extreme action against air pollution by banning all petrol and diesel cars.

Beech Street, in the heart of London’s financial district, will be restricted to zero-emission vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians by spring 2020, with exceptions made for emergency vehicles, access to car parks and for refuse collection and deliveries. The road, much of which runs underneath a housing estate, will participate in an initial trial for 18 months, while air quality and traffic are monitored.

“Drastically reducing air pollution requires radical actions, and these plans will help us eliminate toxic air on our streets,” said Jeremy Simons, chair of the City of London Corporation’s Environment Committee. “Nobody should have to breathe in dirty air.”

City of London's Beech Street set to become UK's first 24/7 zero emission street https://t.co/WP32p6skQM #Industry

— Economy and Industry news (@economynews2019) December 17, 2019

Road transport is responsible for around a fifth of UK greenhouse gas emissions, according to the country’s Office for National Statistics. While the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions fell by more than 30% from 1990 to 2017, emissions from road transport increased by 6% over the same period, it says.

While emissions overall have gone down in the UK, vehicle emissions have risen.
Image: UK Office for National Statistics

Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to health in the UK, according to Public Health England, with between 28,000 and 36,000 deaths a year attributed to long-term exposure. It has been linked to a range of diseases including coronary heart disease, strokes, respiratory disease and lung cancer.

And it’s a worldwide issue, with the World Health Organization estimating that more than 90% of the global population live in places where air quality levels exceed their recommended limits. London is among more than 30 cities that have signed the Fossil Fuel Free Streets Declaration, pledging to procure only zero-emission buses from 2025 and make a major area zero-emission by 2030.

Road traffic is on the up in the UK.
Image: UK Office for National Statistics

And capitals around the globe, including Oslo, Madrid and Mexico City, have started to look at banning cars from their streets.

Cutting greenhouse gas emissions will also be key in the fight against global warming. Public Health England says governments and local authorities must take action to limit and mitigate air pollutants.

The City of London Corporation’s plan aims to bring nitrogen dioxide levels on Beech Street within air-quality guidelines set out by the European Union and World Health Organization. After the trial, the corporation will decide whether similar measures are suitable for other streets.

“It will bring substantial health benefits,” says Oliver Sells, Streets and Walkways Committee Chairman. “The experimental scheme will be enforced using the latest in smart-camera technology and I hope it will be the first of many other schemes like this.”

Written by

Emma Charlton, Senior Writer, Formative Content

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Africa’s shrinking lake shows the impact of climate change on women and indigenous people.

Posted on December 18, 2019August 12, 2020 by dishanth

In 50 years Lake Chad has shrunk to 10th its size; climate change a factor
Lake vital for indigenous communities in one of the world’s poorest countries
Locals use ancestral knowledge to overcome problems of scarce resources

When Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim was a child, Lake Chad in her home country spanned 10,000 km2. These days it’s around 1,200 km2.

Climate change, rising populations and agriculture mean one of Africa’s largest water sources is now a tenth of the size it was in the 1960s.

From the Mbororo pastoralist community, Ibrahim is an expert in how indigenous peoples and particularly women adapt to climate change. She wants to highlight the impact a warming planet is having on communities across Africa.

“Climate change is real and it’s not about our future, it’s about our present,” she told the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit this year. “It’s the issue of survival. It’s not the issue of economy or power, it’s the issue of life of hundreds of millions of people that depend on it.

“We need solutions, we don’t have time. It’s now time for action and immediate action for those peoples who are getting impacted who didn’t create this climate change.”

Shrinking for 50 years

Lake Chad is in the Sahel, the vast semi-arid region south of the Sahara desert. The area is particularly sensitive to drought, and historically the lake has fluctuated dramatically in size during prolonged dry periods. But data from NASA Earth Observatory and others demonstrate the extent it has declined in the last half century.

The disappearing water in Lake Chad.
Image: Shoring Up Stability

More than 30 million people rely on freshwater from the lake. It also supports fishing, irrigation and economic activity both in Chad and Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger. But as the lake shrinks communities are struggling and there is competition for the dwindling resource.

In some communities men have to seek work in bigger cities during dry seasons when the lake can no longer sustain them. Internal migration is increasing, as well as people looking further afield to places such as Europe for work.

The women and children left behind have to fill the gaps and are forced to innovate to maintain food security.

Climate change has been linked to political instability and unrest.
Image: Shoring Up Stability

Across the Sahel, many farmers are reviving an old technique known as zai. They dig pits to catch rainwater, then add compost and plant seeds. The technique concentrates nutrients and can boost crop yields by up to 500%.

The price of global warming on Africa

Among the poorest nations in the world, Chad is already struggling with poverty and frequent conflict. Sixty-two percent of the population are destitute, according to the Multidimensional Poverty Index, and most of the country relies on subsistence farming. Climate change adds to existing political and economic instability, driving further food insecurity.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that Africa will feel the effects of temperature rise more keenly than most. Longer and more severe heat waves will have a profound impact on crop yields and the frequency of droughts.

“Around the world we have all these young people going out on the street asking for justice asking to save their futures,” said Ibrahim, “But I’m going to tell you, the young people in my community are asking for their present.”

Written by

Charlotte Edmond , Senior Writer, Formative Content

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.