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Last week, I joined my colleagues at COP28 in Dubai , as negotiators and civil society push for a fossilfuel phaseout to meet climate goals. The industry is pushing a narrative that misleadingly calls out emissions , not fossilfuels as the problem. Source: IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.
Fossilfuel power plant owners are facing increased accountability for their air and water pollution, including from a new round of environmental and public health protections that are being rolled out by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We’ve heard these lazily disingenuous narratives before.
Both locations near the Paris and Oak Creek sites experience ozone and small particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) concentrations above the states average, signaling that these local communities are already facing heavy environmental health risks.
And fossilfuel power plants may not stick to their retirement schedules for a variety of reasons. NO x also contributes to the formation of ozone (or “smog”), another toxic pollutant. A bit more on those reasons later. A recent study found that more than 99 percent of the global population is exposed to unsafe levels of PM 2.5
That means it includes the extreme wildfires exacerbated by the fossilfuel industry that burned more than 4% of California in 2021 and 2022. come from burning fossilfuels and pesticide use, and ultrafine particles (PM0.1) Ozone, too, poses significant risks to respiratory health.
The fossilfuel industry has systematically contaminated our environment with a wide range of toxic chemicals for over a century. One good example of the nexus between global warming and local pollution is ground-level ozone. A study has shown that PM2.5 Another study found high levels of PM2.5
This year, over 40 million doctors, nurses, health ministers, and other health professionals came together to call for robust action to phase out fossilfuels and work towards a healthier future for those most affected. By contrast, this year there was an unprecedented number of fossilfuel lobbyists in attendance.
Eliminating fossilfuels will radically reduce that problem. Succeeding in the climate arena will also show that human beings can cooperate to address global issues, just as we did in protecting the ozone layer and eliminating smallpox. Accomplishing that will be no easy feat. What does it buy us?
Research shows that halting the burning of fossilfuels in homes and businesses is beneficial for the health of residents and vital to combat climate change. Additionally, NOx react with other chemicals in the air to create other harmful pollutants, like fine particulate matter and ozone.
We breathe oxygen from the atmosphere, weather systems distribute water, and the ozone in the upper atmosphere protects us from harmful radiation. 5] Additionally, the reaction of these volatile chemicals contributes to ground-level ozone production, which, unlike ozone in the stratosphere, is hazardous to human health.
They include, but are not limited to, altering rainfall and monsoon patterns, damaging the ozone layer, increasing global conflicts, and – most unacceptable of all – giving political cover for fossilfuel industries to continue polluting rather than cut greenhouse gas emissions. The potential risks are legion.
California’s leadership on reducing truck pollution has been on full display the past few years, passing critical regulations requiring 90 percent reduction in smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NO X ) emissions from diesel trucks and requiring manufacturers sell an increasing share of electric trucks to move away from fossilfuels altogether.
Methane emissions have a feedback on its own lifetime, serve as an ozone precursor, and reduce the production of sulphate and nitrate aerosols (and consequently indirect cloud-aerosol effects), all of which amplify its net warming effect to about 1.2 W/m<sup>2</sup> (to about 60% of the CO 2 effect since 1750).
It’s in their very first mitigation recommendation, for a “graduated, differentiated phaseout” in production and consumption of fossilfuels. Isn’t it obvious that the world needs to get rid of fossilfuels, and haven’t a bunch of people called for it? Targeting fossilfuels not emissions.
In the coming years, Californians will begin to see a massive switch away from highly polluting fossil-fueled trucks to zero-emission electric trucks. Additionally, the rule phases out the sale of fossil-fueled trucks in 2036. The rule will apply to commercial, federal, state, municipal, and drayage fleets.
The Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) rule, which I’ve blogged about in detail before, will phase out fossil-fueled trucks over the next several decades. Many electric work vans and home-delivery trucks already show a favorable lifetime cost over comparable fossil-fueled models.
Through the Clean Air Act , and as affirmed—and reaffirmed—through multiple legal sagas, EPA is statutorily obligated to address carbon pollution from fossilfuel-fired power plants. One critical tool for forcing that reckoning comes from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPA decision, but it did not ground EPA.
For some parts of the spectrum, the IR can be either absorbed by CO 2 or by water vapour or by clouds, but taking those overlaps into account we find that 50% of the greenhouse effect is from water vapour, 25% from clouds, and about 20% from CO 2 and the rest absorbed by ozone, aerosols, and other trace gases ( Schmidt et al, 2010 ).
In the 1960s climate change was not really a significant concern, not even amongst environmentalists – this was despite the fact that the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius in 1896 was the first to claim that emissions from fossilfuels might eventually result in enhanced global warming.
EPA’s latest proposed rule targeting NOx emissions from fossil-fueled electric generating units (EGUs) is a classic study of diminishing returns. The agency’s air quality modeling indicates that most areas would receive an ozone reduction of less than 0.1 enjoyed ozone reductions of 3 to 5 ppb or more.
Hydrogen’s supply-side has been buttressed by incentives from state and federal governments, refineries and utilities looking to extend the life of fossilfuel infrastructure, and renewable energy companies seeking to take advantage of the huge amounts of clean energy needed to produce green hydrogen.
volume mixing ratio), together with a number of trace gases, such as argon (0.93% volume mixing ratio), helium, radiatively active greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (0.035% volume mixing ratio), and ozone. Biofuels Gas or liquid fuel made from plant material. The dry atmosphere consists almost entirely of nitrogen (78.1%
Recent science doesn’t support this optimism, as new studies show that the increased release of Black Carbon, one of the most potent climate change forcers—as well as soot, carbon dioxide, methane and ozone from more traffic in the Arctic—could lead to a 20% increase in the global heating that is causing warmer ocean temperatures.
To reach these targets, a massive energy transition from dirty conventional marine fuels to zero-emission energy (like wind-assisted propulsion) and fuels is imperative. There is no time to waste on false climate solutions like Liquified Natural Gas (LNG)—a fossilfuel with serious global warming and public health implications.
The Basin does not meet the state or federal ambient air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter, and existing regulations have to date proved insufficient to bring the Basin into compliance. The SCAQMD is the local agency responsible for attaining these clean air standards in the Basin. Facility-Based Mobile Source Measures.
Among other things, it demonstrates that environmental regulation is often driven politically by pressure from businesses that stand to profit from the regulation, a phenomenon we have also seen, for instance, in the history of the Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting substances.
. -- Air pollutant reductions and human-health improvements – the DEP Electric Vehicle Roadmap indicates that a number of Pennsylvania counties consistently exceed EPA human-health standards for ozone and fine-particulate matter. The burning of transportation fuels, such as gasoline and diesel, is a substantial source of air pollution.
When they monitored how the material’s electrical conductivity changes as the concentration of its atomic defects is reversibly modulated using external stimuli such as oxygen, ozone and light, they found that it mimics non-associative learning seen in living creatures.
This investment will enable us to begin transitioning our fleet from burning fossilfuels to using renewable resources to reduce our carbon footprint, which will benefit both our company and our community.” Gasoline and diesel vehicles generate 47 percent of nitrogen oxides emissions in Pennsylvania, contributing to ground-level ozone.
The same is true for freshwater and marine eco-toxicity; ozone depletion and POCP (photochemical oxidant creation potential). With regard to acidification and eutrophication potentials, nuclear energy is also comparable to or better than solar PV and wind.
Emission Sources : Anthropogenic methane emissions are widely associated with fossilfuel (natural gas, oil, and coal production and transportation), although the largest sources are agriculture (from livestock farming [. Carbon dioxide emissions, on the other hand, arise almost exclusively from burning fossilfuels.
Despite these claims, burning waste coal is still just burning fossilfuel and results in the emissions of significant amounts of air pollution including ozone precursors, fine particulates, acid gasses, heavy metals, and vast amounts of carbon pollution. It's unlikely Bitcoin will do anything to alleviate this issue.
Emissions from natural gas consumption represent 79% of the direct fossilfuel CO2 emissions from the residential and commercial sectors in 2020. Coal consumption is today a minor component of direct energy use. Organic waste sent to landfills emits CH4. Air conditioning and refrigeration.
Every year, about 200,000 Americans die from smog, which is a mix of ozone and fine particulates (PM. 2.5. ), mostly from fossilfuel consumption. The Clean Air Act (CAA) regulates smog, setting National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone and PM. Many cities in the Northeast fail ozone and PM.
Despite these claims, burning waste coal is still just burning fossilfuel and results in the emissions of significant amounts of air pollution including ozone precursors, fine particulates, acid gasses, heavy metals, and vast amounts of carbon pollution. It's unlikely Bitcoin will do anything to alleviate this issue.
A team of transportation and policy experts from the University of California released a report today to the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) outlining policy options to significantly reduce transportation-related fossilfuel demand and emissions. The state funded the two studies through the 2019 Budget Act.
including urban photochemical smog, acid rain and increased tropospheric ozone, and climate change at the local, regional, and global level respectively. would be to charge individuals based on their consumption (usually of fossilfuel) as a proxy for their total carbon emissions. carbon dioxide. environmental effects.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) : A group of inert chemical used in many industrial and everyday processes such as our refrigerators that are not broken down at lower atmospheric levels and rise to the upper levels, destroying ozone. They are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, CFCs, and hydrofluorocarbons.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme. , “30-40% of all primary energy is used in buildings” contributing greatly to fossilfuel use and climate change, especially in the US, where 82 percent of people live in cities. Notably, global urbanization. Cutting these figures in half. Through green-roofs. ,
The plan cuts power plant and industrial ozone pollution that wafts from central parts of the nation into eastern states. According to the American Lung Association, nearly 120 million people in the nation—one of every three—lives with unhealthy levels of particle and ozone pollution. A 40-year-old Supreme Court ruling (Chevron v.
These potential intervenors alleged that the additional emissions during the stay period would harm their interest in protecting their residents from the effects of air pollution and climate change.
As the world ran almost entirely on coal power at that time (and later on petroleum fossilfuels), it was quite clear that coal was not an infinite resource, and some scientists pleaded in the countries of most heavy use to take steps to limit mining and burning. Energy Conservation. Energy Conservation.
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