Thoughts for the New Year

by Joseph Morris

While writing this column at the end of October, I was thinking about the past year. According to NOAA (parent organization for the weather service), 2022 was another warm year. For example, September 2022 tied with last year as the fifth warmest month on record. It was also the 46th September in a row and the 453rd month in a row where the earth’s average temperature was above the 20th century average. Scientists have determined that the Earth’s average temperature has risen more than 10C in the last hundred years or so. We’re seeing the results in forest fires, more intense storms, dying coral reefs, and increased coastal flooding. The increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, one of the greenhouse gases causing climate change, continued increasing and is now 40% higher than it’s been for at least a million years.

Across the world, the response to climate change has been mixed. China and India, along with many of the underdeveloped countries, are still building coal plants that will spew more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Here in the US, legislation was passed that will help fight climate change. And I’m seeing visible signs of a cultural change. Auto companies, e.g., Ford and GM, are now featuring electrical vehicles in their commercials.

There are concerns that are not being addressed adequately. Our ability to build electric vehicles and adopt solar and wind generation depends on the availability of some critical metals: nickel, cobalt, lithium, and copper. The primary sources for some of these materials are in countries like China and Russia, which puts the world in an uncomfortable position, in the same way OPEC does for oil. Searches for alternate sources of these materials are, of course, underway, but no solution had been found yet. One irony is that the receding ice in Greenland exposed an island that contains nickel reserves representing twice the production for the past eighty years of the Norilsk Russian mine, one of the world’s largest. Searches for lithium have had some modest success in South America and Canada. However, it’s not clear whether those mines will ever be able to produce the levels required in the future.

Industry continues to innovate to address climate change. Some are modest like a new type of bladeless wind turbine by Aeromine Technologies that can be adapted for rooftop installation. Instead of big rotating
blades it uses airfoils like the wings on an airplane to suck the wind downward through an internal propeller connected to a generator as shown in the figure on the right. The fixed airfoils on the top creates a negative pressure. Without blades it is more compact and also much safer for birds. The technology was originally developed by researchers from Sandia National Labs and Texas Tech. I don’t know if this technology will ever be truly successful but it’s an example of the innovation efforts that will eventually make a difference. It also illustrates the need to maintain R&D funding to our national laboratories and universities.

For now, we, as individuals can continue to help fight climate change by being cognizant of the choices we make in our purchases and in our lifestyle choices. We can all do our part to preserve our planet by adding environmental concerns to our everyday decision making.